Back at MIT
by Louvampyer
Summary: Rent fic. Collins gets a letter in the mail asking him to come back to work at MIT. Be kind, R&R... My first Rentfic Angel's POV chapter 18 up...
1. The Letter

Authors note- I own nothing in this story, I just love them. J. Larson is the man! And about Angel… I don't care! I will never write a fic where Angel is sick, dying, or dead… It's just wrong when people do that… And also, this is my first fanfic ever, so be kind and R&R

"I don't know why you're acting like this is such a bad thing." I had been watching him rant about a letter he had gotten from MIT for nearly an hour.

"How can you act like it's a good thing? Either I reject the job and give up a high and steady pay check, or I take the job and leave you.

I began to pick at my previously perfectly manicured nails. I finally looked up at him, his chocolate eyes glazed over; telling me that this seriously was killing him. There was no way I could let him leave me, but I also couldn't tell him to turn down his dream job and that kind of money. I stood up and lifted his head from the spot in the floor he was staring at. "We'll figure it out. We always do." He was about to say something, but I stopped him with my lips over his. "We will. Now when does it say that the director wants to talk to you?"

Collins slowly lifted the paper he had already read twenty times. "He's in town for the week. He wants me to call him with a place and time, by Thursday."

"Well it's only Sunday. You've got time for a plan." I took a step back and turned from his torn eyes. I could tell that he had no clue what to do, and there was no way I was going to make it harder for him. With my back to Collins, and my eyes pretending to study the calendar in out kitchen, I made that point very clear. "This has to be about what you need Collins. Not what you may want at the moment."

We both stood quiet for a moment, a tear falling down my cheek at the though that I had just told Collins to take the job, when I felt two strong arms wrap around my waist. "Well, the answer to both those things is you. I can't live without my Angel."

I let another tear fall down my cheek as Collins began kissing my neck. "Well then we'll work it out. But not now." I turned around in his arms and put mine around his neck. "We can work it out later." I kissed him back, pulling him into the bedroom, letting any thoughts of MIT fall out of my mind.


	2. The Conditions

Collins hadn't stopped moving since we got to the Life half an hour ago. It was Wednesday, and he had finally set up an appointment with Professor Michaels, the director of the teacher's board at MIT, or something like that. The actual name of his job had slipped my mind since Collins had told me what it was. No matter how much I tried to calm him, he kept looking to the door, turning back, spilling his tea.

I still didn't understand why this was as big a deal as he made it out to be. Of course I understood the dilemma, but still. This was causing him to toss at night.

I placed a hand on his arm, causing him to jump, but he looked me in the eye, and he could tell what I was thinking. "I'm sorry."

"I don't understand what the problem is. You tell him your demands, and if he can't deal with them, then he's out of luck. There are schools around here you could get a job at if he turns you down." He lowered his eyes, but I shook his arm and forced him to look back up. "Hey, he's the one who wanted you back. You didn't contact him, he contacted you, remember. There's gotta be a reason."

"Ya, but still…" He turned from me and began to stare into space. I shook him again and stared into his eyes expectantly. He face shifted from worried to ashamed. "They fired me three days after they found out I was gay."

"What! Isn't that against the law?"

"Well, they never told me that that was the reason. They blamed it on the actual reality incident, but that had happened four month before the fired me. Then they found out I was gay, and all of a sudden it was a problem. But since they blamed it on a legitimate problem, I could file a complaint against them."

I was about to say something comforting, when an older white man sat down at the table. Collins looked up, startled and sat straighter. He opened his mouth to speak, bur the man held him hand up to silence him. "I'll get straight to the point, Professor Collins. We have a very bright student in our school at the moment. Jeffery Chang, if you recall. Anyway, he has the potential to bring our school a lot of money, grants, and so forth. He even has the ability for a Nobel Prize if he keeps studying like he is. I know that we have had differences in the past, but for some reason, you touched this student, and he is threatening to leave out school and bring the support he has gained else where if we do not rehire you to our staff."

Both mine and Collins's jaw had dropped at that point. What a thing to hear. What a compliment! My face transformed to a smile as I looked at Collins, but he didn't smile. Actually, he sat up even straighter and looked rather smug. "Well, since it seems as though you really need me, it would be okay if I made a few demands?"

Mr. Michaels went pale for a moment, but he regained his composer quickly. "Nearly anything."

"Okay then." Now he smiled, at me in particular. "I want my own apartment off campus which the school will pay the rent for, and I want Angel to be allowed to come." He looked back at Mr. Michaels. "I have no doubt in my mind that you fired me for being gay. Not a thing has changed, except that now I have a boyfriend who I need to stay with me."

My smile grew even wider. I wanted to kiss him, but I though better of it, since the man offering Collins a job was clearly a homophobe. He turned to me, as if seeing me sitting there for the first time. And it wasn't a good look either. Kind of like when you see the best shoes ever, but there way too much money. Collins was the shoes he wanted, I was the money he didn't have, but would have to find if he wanted the shoes. I just smiled at him and snaked my hand into Collins's, who held it tight.

Mr. Michaels rolled his eyes, and turned back to Collins. "Ohh alright, under one condition." Collins leaned forward in his seat, not wanting to miss what ever it was Mr. Michaela was about to ask. "If and whenever Angel…" He said my name like he was swallowing poison. "enters campus property, he must follow the male dress code."

Collins looked at me with hurt in his eyes. I knew that he wanted his job so much, but I knew that he would never ask me to compromise who I was, so again, I did it for him. "Fine, I will."

Collins eyes went wide for a moment. "No, I can't ask you to do that for me."

I placed my hand on his cheek. "You didn't ask me. I offered." I dropped my hand and looked at Michaels. I could see the disgust all over his face, but I ignored it. "Is there anything that needs to be signed or something?"

Mr. Michaels stood up. "No, that's all. We expect to see you next Sunday, where will give you a class schedule and show you to your apartment. You will have one week to get settled in and plan your courses." He left the Life Café without another word or glance at us.

Collins looked at me with a frown. "You can't do this. You are the only person I know who knows exactly who they are."

I laughed and took Collins face in my hands. "I can still be me in pants without heels. Really. I did do it for the first eighteen years of my life, and I know how to walk in sneakers." Collins laughed. I'm not sure if it was at what I had said, or just the fact that I had said it, but he was now at ease, so it didn't really matter. "We should probably tell the others that we're moving to Massachusetts."

His smile faded again. "Ya, I guess."


	3. The house

Collins and I spent the better part of our last week in New York packing, and saying goodbye to our friends. Since Joanne is the only one of us with a car, she offered to drive us and all of our stuff to Boston, and since Maureen is Maureen, she offered to keep us company on the trip.

She also offered to take me shopping for less girly clothes, not that I need the help, I do know what I'm doing, but she was more there to make suggestions and keep my company. We shopped all day Friday, and managed to buy two suitcases full of less girly clothes in my budget. Not to say my clothes were manly. They were still somewhat tight with sequins and glitter. You can't hide a feminine figure! I'm leaving all my skirts, dresses, and wigs with Maureen. She said something about a private show she was doing for Joanne. I said okay, as long as she washed all my clothes when she was done, and never told me about the shows.

It actually hurt not to pack any of my favorite outfits, but I did it for Collins. He's worth it.

We said a final good goodbye to out friends, promising to visit on all the holidays, and piled into the already stuffed car. Collins drove a moving van with what little furniture we owned in it, and Joanne drove the car. It was a pretty quiet drive. Maureen and I sang to the radio for awhile, and Maureen went into a rant about how our ancestors labored to build the roads, and there for it was absurd for us to pay toll fees to use them. She began forming a protest on the side of a box, and I think that was when I fell asleep. We stopped to eat, but besides that, like I said, it was a pretty quiet trip.

We got to MIT around five. The rest of us waited in the car as Collins went in to get his things from Professor Michaels.

Maureen and I sat on the hood of Joanne's car and Joanne leaned next to Maureen, but remained standing.

"Don't you think it will be weird? Not having all your friends here with you? Not have the Life Café, and having to find all new places to eat?" Maureen stared at me and twirled a finger in her hair.

"I think we can find new places to eat." I laughed quietly. "It's the friend thing that I'm worried about, especially for Collins. He's so attached to all of you." Maureen raised her eyebrows at me. "I am too; it's just that Collins has been with you guys forever. And he did get fired here for being gay. Now he's back and he has his boyfriend with him."

Joanne looked up at a tree, clearly thinking. "Well, someone obviously wants him here. And he obviously wants to be here." She looked down at me. "With you."

I pulled her arm so that she was in front of me, and I hugged her. Maureen, never wanting to be out of the loop, wrapped her arms around both of us. "That wasn't what I meant though. I was wondering how you guys would get by with out me."

I let go of Joanne and hit Maureen on the arm softly, when I saw Collins come back out with a large folder and a key chain around his finger. He came out with a huge smile on his face, his eyes wide and twinkling. He walked straight to me and picked me up, spinning me in the air.

When he put me down, I stepped back, just a little scared, but laughed it off. "What?"

"Well, they couldn't find an apartment within a walking distance of the school, so we got a house! A whole house! Only one story, but still!"

I know I must have looked stupid, but I screamed and jumped up and down, clapping my hands before throwing my hands around Collins neck. "Ohh my god! A whole house?"

"Yep! With rooms and everything."

Maureen slid off the car and smiled. "Cool! Now we can come stay with you whenever we want!"

Joanne rolled her eyes. "That depends on if they want us, Maureen."

I threw my arms around both of them. "Of course we want you!" I turned back to Collins. "Where is it?"


	4. Unpacking

He lifted his arm, still smiling, and pointed right across the street from where we were standing. There was a small brick building, with a porch and a yard and a swing on a tree in the front. I think I would have fainted it was so beautiful, but I didn't, since I wanted to see the inside so bad.

"Come on, let's unpack." I kissed Collins quickly before grabbing a box from the car and slowly walking to the house. I would have ran, but one, I would have looked stupid, and two, this was my first house, I wanted to savor it.

Once we all had a box and were standing on the front porch, Collins inserted the key into the lock and turned to me. "Drum roll?"

I rhythmically banged my hands on the side of my box as the door swung open. If I though the house was beautiful on the outside, then the inside was beautiful times twenty. Collins walked in first and set his box down, humming slightly as he looked around the room.

Joanne and Maureen also set there boxes down. "Not bad. Not bad at all."

"Are you kidding me! It's awesome! You guys are so lucky!"

I smiled at Collins, who smiled back at me. "I guess so. Now come on. We have a lot more stuff to get, and I want to get unpacked as soon as possible."

Maureen crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. "You want to get unpacked cause the sooner you're done, the sooner Joanne and I have to leave."

"True, but I was hoping you wouldn't notice." I smacked Collins in the arm. "You know I'm joking! They're the only family we have here."

Maureen and I ran around the rest of the rooms looking at all of them. There were two bedrooms, a kitchen/dining room, a bathroom, and a living room. I picked the pink bedroom over the green one, telling Collins that it was only because it was bigger.

Maureen and I began to unpack while Collins and Joanne kept bringing more boxes in. As Joanne and Collins carried out bed into the house, Joanne scowled at us unpacking clothing and putting them into drawers. "May I ask why Collins and I are doing the heavy lifting and you two are arranging tops?"

Maureen never looked up from the shirts she was folding-trying one. "You're the men." Joanne nearly punched her, but Maureen slinked her arms around her waist. "I'm only kidding Pookie." Joanne looked as though she wanted to protest, but since Maureen had been in the process of trying on one of my shirts, and there for was only wearing her pants and a bra, Joanne seemed to forget what she was about to say, and pulled Maureen in for a kiss.

Collins dramatically covered his eyes. "Come on, this is mine and Angels bedroom. Can't you two save it for later, or you know, when you're in private?"

Maureen smiled at him and gave him a hug, despite his protests.


	5. The new Me

We finished unpacking around three in the morning. It would have taken longer, but we didn't have much stuff. I was ready to collapse, as was Joanne, but Maureen and Collins didn't look anywhere near tired, so we sat in out new living room and watched movies. I tried to sleep, but with out Collins, it was no use.

I sat up, pulled on a shirt, and groggily walked into the living room. I stood in the doorway for a moment, watching Collins and the others laugh. I had no clue what they were watching, but I love watching Collins laugh at what ever it was. He had a smile that lit up his whole face, and made his eyes twinkle. After a minute, he looked up and saw me, still smiling, and held up his hand to me. I took it and slid into his lap, pulling a blanket over my arms and snuggled my head into the crook of his neck. When the next funny part in the movie came up, I could feel Collins chest tighten, like he was trying to stay quiet and not wake me up. I traced a heart on his chest with my finger. "Don't stop yourself from laughing, okay?"

He tightened his arms around me. "Okay."

I must have fallen asleep on Collins lap, and he carried me to bed, because that's where I woke up, or technically, where I was woken up. I may have been dreaming, I can't really remember, but I was awoken by Maureen trying to push me out of bed. "Get up, get dressed, and get out!"

I rubbed my eyes and looked at her. She was fully dressed and ready to go. I looked at my watch. It was close to noon. I couldn't remember the last time I had slept that late. Well, actually, I could. It was the first time me and Collins slept together, since neither of wanted to leave the warmth of the bed the next morning, and we just laid there, holding each other. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. "Why do I need to get up and out of my own bed?"

Maureen rolled her eyes like it should have been completely obvious. "Because I'm hungry and you have no food in this house. Collins and Joanne are doing something with paper and pens. I don't really know what because they talked so much and I didn't pay attention. Anyway, we need to go food shopping with the money Collins left. Ohh and he wanted me to give you something."

She bent over the bed and gave me a hug and kiss on the cheek. "No offence Mo, but that might have meant more coming from him."

She began to pout dramatically and I jumped up and hugged her again, holding her until she began to squirm away from me. "No offence Ang, but that might have meant more coming from Joanne." She laughed and threw a pillow at me. "Now get dressed so we can go!" She walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. I could vaguely hear salsa music come over the radio in the kitchen.

I rubbed my eyes one final time, sliding out of bed and to my dresser. For just a second, I was worried when I couldn't find my skirts, but then I remembered, and pulled out a pair of shiny blue jeans and a black shirt with blue sparkles on the sleeves. Honestly, I hated it, but it did take me a lot less time to get ready without having a wig and makeup to perfect. I slid on my black sneakers and took a deep breath, looking in the mirror. Sure, I looked hot, but it just wasn't the same. I never noticed how short my real hair was before, or how dull the natural color of my lips was. I probably shouldn't have, but I pulled out a tube of my lightest lip gloss and applied a thin layer to my lips. There. At least I hadn't abandoned my old self entirely.

I walked into the kitchen and Maureen stared at me for a minute. "You know, it's not fair. Most people can pull off dresses, tight pants, or are forced to wear flannels. You look hot in all three."

"It's a burden, as well as a blessing." I struck a pose, just to make Maureen laugh, since my body seemed to seriously piss her off. It worked and she laughed, grabbing my arm and pulling me out and to the car. "Do you even know how to drive Mo?"

"I used to. I guess we'll see if I still do."


	6. Teaching some a lesson

We had a bumpy ride at first, with Maureen getting used to driving again. She told me the she hadn't driven a car since she was eighteen, back when she first came to the city. We drove for about fifteen minutes before finding a store. When we got out and Maureen grabbed a cart, people began staring at us, both of us. Me in my sparkly jeans, and her in her skin tight lime shirt that had 'Both ways!' printed on it. She just smiled a winked at people, loving any kind of attention she could get, as I walked beside her, putting food in the cart.

"You know, this place ain't half bad!" You could just see how much she was loving this attention. "Everybody's looking at us!"

True they were, but I wasn't sure how much I appreciated the way they were looking at me. "I don't think the looks are meant to be flattering."

"So? They're still looking, aren't they?" She gave a small princess wave to a man walking by.

I couldn't help but smile at how much she was enjoying the attention. True, she got attention in New York, but a lot of people dress out there. Here, everyone had kakis and sweaters.

When the cart was filled with everything from Captain Crunch to apples to ice cream, and Maureen was satisfied that it would hold her over for the duration of her stay, we piled into the checkout counter.

The teenage boy seemed to be disgusted and annoyed with us, the way we talked, dressed, and acted. He spoke to us with daggers in his eyes and voice. "$132.84"

Maureen was finally fed up with it. "You could be a little nicer to paying customers you know."

"$132.84… _Please_."

Now, if there was one thing that would set Maureen off, it was sarcasm, aimed at her. She looked around the store with a glint in her eyes, and I knew she was planning something. I set a hand on her shoulder. "Maureen, leave it."

But she brushed my hand off, and raised her voice without shouting, so that nearly everyone in at least the checkout area could hear her. "Excuse me sir, but how much is a twelve pack of condoms?"

The boy looked mortified, and even though I was a little embarrassed, I couldn't help but smile. He spoke barely above a whisper, and neither of us could hear him. Maureen cupped her ear and leaned into the boy. "Excuse me sir? I couldn't hear you, could you speak up please?"

He raised his voice just a bit. "$15."

Maureen smiled. "Thank you! We'll take a box."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Mo, what are we gonna do with condoms?"

"You want me to like, walk you through it?"

"No, I know what you _do_ with them; I want to know what _we_ are going to do with them."

"Don't worry Angel, I got this!" The boy handed them to Maureen, without looking at her. She took them and smiled, handing him the money. We were about to leave, when Maureen turned back to the boy, and handed him the box of condoms. He looked utterly confused. "I think you need these more than we do."

I lifted my hand and pressed on the bridge of my nose. "Maureen, you just wasted $15!"

She shrugged. "So? Collins has a job now, you can do that sometimes. And anyway, Joanne and I can't use them, and it's not like you're gonna get pregnant. Ohh wait, I can bring them back to Mimi. She'll be so grateful." She snatched the box back out of the boys' hand. "I'll be needing these back, but I hope you learned your lesson." With that, she grabbed some bags and pulled me out of the store.


	7. Dinner and chit chat

I punched Maureen in the arm once we got out of the store, but she kissed me and laughed it off. Once we were home with all the groceries put away, Maureen and I though it would be fun to try to cook dinner for our lovely counter parts, so we got out all the things we thought me may need, and set to work doing what ever we though looked good.

Maureen was in charge of the main dish, so she got out the chicken and cut off all the parts that looked gross, and threw it in a pan to cook. Well, she ended up burning it, and trying to cover up the black parts with other things. So for the main dish we had burnt chicken with marshmallow sauce and peanut butter.

I had to make a side dish, but I guess I had a bit more heritage experience and made rice with peppers and corn in it. It looked gross, but at least it smelt ok.

When it came time for dessert, we decided to work together, just for the fun of it. We grabbed a bowl and put cut up strawberries and pound cake, cool whip, and a packet of blue raspberry cool aid in it. The cool aid was Maureen's idea, and I take no responsibility for the vomit color it turned out to be.

Much to Maureen's protest, we cleaned up the entire kitchen and set the table before Collins and Joanne got back. We greeted them and kissed them, before Maureen started jumping up and down. "We made you guys' dinner!" Her face went from excited to stern. "And you better eat it and like it!" Collins exchanged a worried look with Joanne, but I took his hand and lead him into the dining room, with Joanne following behind. "See!"

Joanne slowly raised a hand to her mouth as she looked at the food, and Collins looked behind him, as if to see if there was anyway out, but Maureen pushed them both into chairs. "Eat!"

They very slowly took food into their plates and cut it into very small pieces. We watched them expectantly, until we heard the burnt chicken crunch in their mouths. I could see the forcefulness of the 'mmms' but Maureen didn't seem to notice. She clapped and looked at me. "See? They like it! And you didn't think they would. But it gets better! We made dessert too!"

She left into the kitchen and Joanne took that moment to look at me desperately. "Are you two kidding? Is this some kind of sick joke?"

On cue, Maureen came out of the kitchen with our shortcake concoction. Collins looked at me with daggers in his eyes. "Sorry, but I draw the line at purple fruit dishes."

"I'm not eating it either."

Maureen, who we all know will not take no for an answer, sat on Joanne's lap and kissed her. "Pookie? If you try it, Angel and I will by pizza." Joanne looked at the concoction with hatred, but very slowly took a bite, and forced her self to swallow.

Maureen smiled and kissed her again, but pulled away and stuck out her tongue. "Eww. Angel, that tastes gross."

"Don't blame me! The cool aid was your idea. It would have been very tasty strawberry shortcake if you didn't add the blue stuff to it!"

Maureen whipped her tongue with a napkin before taking the concoction and throwing it in the trash. "See? I made it all better!"

"Maureen, that needed to be thrown out, I'll give you that, but why would you purposely destroy good food and waste money?"

"Cause that's what I've been doing all day." She looked at me and burst out laughing. I followed suit.

Collins eyed me suspiciously. "What do you two do today?"

I could just feel the laughter fade from my face, but Maureen continued, toning it down only to a giggle. "Well, Maureen kind of bought protection thingies for the cashier at the super market to teach him a lesson."

Joanne stood up and set her hands calmly on the table. "Maureen, why would you do that?"

Maureen placed her hands on her hips defensively. "Because he was being rude to me and Angel!"

"Being rude how exactly?"

Maureen threw up her arms. "How do you think!"

"Well Maureen, you do tend to be an invitation."

"An invitation to _what_ exactly?"

"To either harass you, or to bang you."

I very quickly grabbed Collins hand and pulled him from the room, closing the door behind us. I hated it when they went at it, and the less of it I had to hear, the better. I slumped against the door and looked at the floor. Collins laughed and sat on the arm of the couch, holding up his hand to me. "How long do you think this one will go?"

I placed my hand in his and he pulled me into his lap, one leg on each side of him. "No clue. Forever? Thirty seconds?" I pulled my arms up around his neck and kissed him softly before laying my head on his shoulder. "Are we gonna start fighting?"

He placed his hands softly on my hips and pulled me in closer to him, his warm arms threatening never to let go. "I don't think so, but if we ever do, we work through it, simple as that."

We had begun to kiss, when a loud bang came from the dining room. I jumped, but Collins caught me before I fell on the floor. I sighed and stood up, walking to check on Maureen and Joanne. I opened the door just a bit, not even far enough to poke my head through, just my eyes. Maureen was sitting the table topless with her legs wrapped around Joanne's waist. They were playing tonsil tennis, so I quickly shut the door, grabbed Collins and ran out of the house. "So, pizza?"


	8. How gay do I look?

Maureen and Joanne finally left after about five days. It was the last weekend left before Collins would start working. He was working on class plans or something nearly every day, but he promised to take today off and stay with me. Well, actually, he wasn't really taking the day off, be we were going to set up his new office, and this would be my first time on campus. I spent longer getting dressed that I ever had when I was in drag. Collins laughed because I made him look at everything, and all he did was say 'that looks great' 'that looks good too'. Ya, he was being helpful.

I finally had to kick him out and get dress all by my self, but he kept talking to me through the door. "We're not even talking to anyone; just setting up my office. Should this be fairly simple?"

"Collins, the one condition for me being here is that I look like a boy. It's not my fault I have a feminine body to cover up here. It's not easily done." I held up a plain green shirt up to me. It wasn't quite as tight ass most of my shirts, so it was the best I was gonna get. I threw it on and began searching for pants. "Don't you want me to look my best?"

"Yes, but what about when we meet people? Like school people? If you look your best now, on a day when you should look laid back, and then they see you again, in the same laid back look which is actually your best, they will think you think meeting them is a laid back situation. Is that what you want?"

I threw on a pair of my loosest fitting blue jeans, with a slight flair in the legs. "I have no clue what I want in comparison to what you just said." I slipped on my incredibly boring sneakers, and opened the door. Collins smiled at me. "Is that a good smile, or a 'finally' smile?"

He pulled me close to him by my hips and kissed my softly. "Can it be a little of both?"

I pushed him away and tried to look aggravated, but he pouted his lip, and that's all it took for me to practically pin him to the wall, if I was bigger. Since he is so much bigger than me, it ended up being me pinned to the wall, not that I really minded, but I finally pushed him away after a few minutes. "Collins, you're gonna ruin the outfit I worked hard to pick out!" Collins reluctantly stepped back while I straightened my shirt that had been rudely wrinkled. I looked up at him. "Okay, how gay do I look?"

"What?"

"I'm supposed to look like a normal boy, the guy with the conditions said so. So how gay do I look?"

"Like on a scale from one to ten?"

"If that's how you care to judge it."

"Maybe a… wait, what number are you shooting for?"

"If I tell you, you'll rig your answer."

"No I won't, promise."

"Then maybe a four."

"Well, what number are you when you're in drag?"

"I don't know, you're the one who wanted to judge me on this scale. You make up a number."

"I don't like that scale anymore. The conditions said you have to follow male dress code, and all it says are shirt and pants, which are not revealing or offensive. So technically, you could be in a wig, heels, and makeup, and they couldn't say anything as long as the outfit was made up of a shirt and pants."

"I don't want to embarrass you."

"You have never, in our time together, embarrassed me."

"That was New York. Now were in a city that frowns upon the homosexual lifestyle." I wiggled my fingers as I said homosexual, so that he would know exactly what I meant. "And I don't want to make that fact that I'm here with you any harder than it already is."

"It's not hard having you here. If anything, you make it easier."

I just smiled at him and grabbed some bags from the pile sitting by the door with things that needed to go to his office. Collins grabbed a few boxes of books, and I was shocked that he was actually able to lift them. I would never have been able to, but them that is one of the differences between us.


	9. Walking on Campus

It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, walking across the MIT campus. I barely got a second glance. Well, maybe a second glance, but barely a third. I had done my job. Collins on the other hand, he was getting smiles and waves. A few girls even called to him. They just said welcome back professor, but at least they remembered him. And he was just loving it, smiling and all. Some of the students must have known why he was fired, because he also got some rather rude looks, but he was smiling all the same.

When we got to his new office, and set the things down, hey smiled at me and laughed. "See? Was that really what you were so worried about? Seems a bit foolish now doesn't it?"

"Not at all. If I hadn't put so much care into this outfit, it wouldn't have been as quiet a walk. Don't you think more people would have given us weird looks if I was in a pink shirt with sparkly jeans? Like the outfit you said looked fine this morning?"

"I wouldn't have cared how they looked at us if you were in a skirt. I love you and it doesn't really matter how you dress, I'm still gonna love you." He kissed me and turned, scanning his office for the first time. "It's not very big."

"Well, I'm only one person. How much space do I need? All I really need is a desk and a book shelf, and I have both of those. Want to help me set up or are you going home?"

"Nope, I'm going to stay and help. This is kind of gonna be the first time we've spent just us together. Either Joanne and Mo were here, or you were planning your classes, so now we can talk." He handed me a box of books, which I nearly dropped, so he set them on the floor beside the bookshelf. "How did you carry three boxes of those heavy things?"

He answered me by lifting me up in his arms for a brief moment and kissing me on the cheek before setting me down. "Like that!" He went back to the papers he was sorting into files. "Do you want to put up the books?"

"Sure. So they need to be in some kind of order?"

"Alphabetically by the second letter in the author's middle name."

"And if it doesn't say the middle name?"

"I was joking Angel."

"So was I Collins." He continued to sort paper work as I arranged three boxes of books on two shelves by color. It looked very pretty by the time I was done. Collins was still caught up in his paper work when I turned back to him, so I stole a pencil and some copy paper and began making sketches of all the clothes I left back in New York. Maureen and Mimi must be having a field day with them. Once I had drawn out my entire wardrobe, I set the paper down and looked up at Collins, who happened to be looking at me, frowning. "What's wrong?"

"You miss your drag at home, don't you?"

"Ya, but I'd miss you even more if I had stayed there, so I'm okay."

"Are you sure? Because I don't _have_ to be here."

"Yes you do, and I'm fine with the sacrifice. Now just give me something colorful to color in my sketches with and I'll be happy." Collins laughed and handed me some colored pens that I had made him buy. There were a bunch of colors he would never use, such as pink, lime, and aqua, but he had gotten them anyway. I gave him a reassuring smile and went back to coloring my pictures, every sparkle and sequin I could remember. It must have taken me about an hour to finish, because the next time I looked up, Collins was arranging the last of his pens and pencils on the desk.

I watched him pull a framed picture from his pocket and set it on the desk. "All done. You ready to go?" I nodded, straightening my pile of pictures, and he reached his hand down and pulled me up. He grabbed his briefcase and led the way out the door.

I stood about a foot away from Collins as we walked back across the campus grounds, probably being too self conscious of not wanting to embarrass Collins by walking too close. True, he said I didn't embarrass him, but I knew it would only make it harder if everyone knew he was dating a transvestite. If they were at home, I would have my arm wrapped right around his waist, and his arm would be around my shoulders, but I was almost afraid to do that here.

As if he had been reading my mind, Collins stopped me and grabbed my arm, turning me to him. He furrowed his eyebrows and lowered his voice. "Please stop looking around like spies are watching you."

"I'm not." But I was.

"And please stop walking like you're afraid to get close to me. I love you, and I care a world more about you that about what any of these people think of me."

I lowered my head. "I just don't want to embarrass you."

"Wouldn't you be embarrassed if every time we went somewhere, I walked an arms length from you and looked around like I was scared someone would see us together?"

I looked back up at him. "I'm sorry." I pouted my lip, which forced him to smile. "I'll do better, I promise."

Collins touched my chin with the tip of his finger and smiled. "Thank you." We began walking again, when he grabbed my hand, interlocking our fingers. I didn't bother looking around to see what everyone thought of the two of us holding hands, at this point, I really didn't care. I just looked ahead, smiling.


	10. A Letter and Defence

Hey Angel and Collins,

We really miss you guys down here. Maureen and Joanne told us your place is really nice, and we should all be very jealous. It's not like it would take much for us to be jealous of an apartment though would it? When we come up, I'll need to bring my camera (not that I would leave it anyway, but still) and film a piece of your new life.

It really sucks that were not all a part of that life, but everyone needs to move on to bigger better things eventually I guess. The loft is so quiet without your drum Angel, and Collins, well, we just miss you because there's not much besides sardonic humor that you bring to the group and we can all do without that. Just kidding.

Angel, you may want to know that Maureen had a field day with your clothing, and she dragged us all into it. No pun intended. I'm sending you some pictures, but so you know how much you're missing.

Roger got a gig in this club next week; I'll film it for you. Mimi's working longer hours, I probably won't film that, but if you want me to, I will. They both say thanks for the condoms and that they will be put to good use, if you can guess what that means.

Maureen has a new protest that she said Angel would understand. All I really can get from her is that if Jack had to pay for the beans that only brought misery to his family, what is that saying about paying toll fees on the highway? She must be in the early stages of getting this protest together, because they normally make some kind of sense, and I just don't understand this one. If you really do understand it Angel, could you fill the rest of us in?

I better get going. We had no paper at home so I'm writing this all out at the post office and the guy who works here is getting a bit impatient. Enjoy the pictures and call us sometime to let us know how life on the good end is.

We all love and miss you,

Mark

Ohh, Joanne says thanks again for letting her and Maureen stay with you. She had a very nice time, and she's really sorry about dinner, whatever that means.

I sat on the swing in front of the house, reading and rereading the letter from Mark. Once I read it about fifteen times and had it memorized, I began to look through the pictures. There were about ten, and they were all of my friends dressed up in my clothes, posing for the camera. And I mean all my friends, including Roger and Mark. Roger I'm pretty sure was high, since he was looking into the camera as if her was trying to see something in it, but Mark, I guessed, did it willingly once Maureen did nothing more that ask him nicely.

Maureen had on a long blonde wig, and was all done up in electric pink. Mimi had short, curly red hair and was wearing a lime shirt and a black top. Even Joanne was dressed up, which was shocking. She was wearing a rainbow dress. Mark, an absolute cutie, was wearing my favorite wig, the black bob, and had on a pink skirt and a blue shirt with pink flowers on it. Roger, I was actually surprised, looked stunning. He would be an awesome drag queen. He had on a curly brown wig, a short purple tube dress with a black and pink scarf tied around it. He perfected the look with knee high black boots and pink jewelry. He really must have been high; a sane Roger would never wear that. He would have at least worn all black.

I gathered the pictures and letter in my hand and walked to Collins office on campus. Collins had been teaching classes for about a month not, and I had gotten much better about walking on campus. I didn't care so much what everyone though after that time Collins told me that he didn't care. I walked straight to his office and knocked on the door. The only reason I knocked was because sometimes he was having meetings with either faculty or students. He didn't answer, so I opened the door. He wasn't in his office, so I walked to the classroom he taught in, and looked through the window, and there he was. I could see the passion in his voice without even hearing him.

He really cared about what he did, and I didn't want to disturb or distract him, so I went back out and sat on a bench in front of the school, one leg on each side of it, and absent mindedly began tapping out a rhythm on the concrete in front of my. My mind must have drifted off, because I was jolted back when a small group of boys clapped for me. It wasn't the kind of clapping you do to congratulate someone; it was the kind of clapping you did when you've finally beaten your opponent, and they had smirks on their faces to match.

I could see why they would have those looks. I hadn't paid attention to what I was wearing when I can over, so I was in sparkly jeans and a blue top with flowers stitched up the sleeves. I just stared at them blankly. "Can I help you?"

"You're Professor Collins _girl_friend, aren't you?"

I laughed at the thought that he though that calling me his girlfriend would offend me. That was, after all, how I saw myself. "You don't know the half of it."

The boy who had asked the question seem thrown off by what I had said, but his friends were pushing him forward, urging him on. "You're just a little fag."

"A tip, if you're going to insult someone, do it by telling them something they don't already know, okay?"

I had thrown him off even more. He was getting confused. "We don't want you here."

"I already get that. What else you got?"

"You should just go home. None of us want you here."

Collins always had good timing. He came over and sat behind me, putting his arms around my waist. "I wouldn't say none of us want her."

The boy now looked genuinely confused. "Her?"

I held out my hand to him and smiled. "Hi, I'm Angel. Professor Collins girlfriend, remember?"

The boy never took my hand, but one of the boys behind him did. "Hi, it's nice to meet you." His friends punched him. "Oww." He rubbed his arm. "I told you guys not to mess with him. It never hurts to be nice."

"You're such a sissy."

"It's better than being rude."

Collins and I just watched the kind boy spar with his rude friends before Collins cut in. "Don't you boys have a class to get to?"

The boys slowly walked away, not looking back, except the one who had shook my hand. He waved. "It was nice to meet you!"

I waved back. "You too!" I turned around and kissed Collins quickly. "Did you see me!"

He laughed. "Ya, I saw you baby. You were doing real good standing up for yourself. I'm very proud."

"Ohh, I forgot. We got a letter from Mark, and some pictures!" I handed him the letter, but held back the pictures when he reached for them. "Nope, you need to read the letter first."

When he was about halfway down the page, his jaw dropped and he eyed me suspiciously, and snatched the pictures from my hand, laughing. "Ohh my god Angel! This is amazing. Ohh my god!" He stopped laughing when he got to the picture of Roger. "Huh. I never noticed that Roger was so pretty."

I punched him softly in the arm and took the pictures from him. "These are all getting hung on the wall, and I was wondering…"

"Yes?"

"Well, spring break is coming in a week."

"Yes… What are you asking?"

"Can we invite everyone up for spring break? Please Collins!"

Collins had a look in his face like he was trying to tease me, so I hit him again. "We would need to fix up the guest room. That would give Roger and Mimi a place, Mark could have the couch, and that leaves Maureen and Joanne on the pullout. That work for you?"

I wrapped my arms around neck and kissed him, not really caring who saw. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I stood up and grabbed his hand. "This means shopping!"


	11. Every thing is Taken Care of

I know this one is very short, but for some reason I didn't want to put it with the arrival… I didn't think they matched…

I was so excited! I had woken up at five in the morning to make sure the house was ready for everyone. They said they were gonna be here around noon, and even though I knew everything was in perfect place, I couldn't help feel like everything was suddenly wrong.

Collins got up at about six, since he had one more day of classes to teach. "Where have you been all morning?" He gave me a kiss on the cheek before walking to the kitchen for breakfast. I sat on a stool and watched him get out a bowl and spoon for his cereal.

"Collins? What if we forgot something?"

He poured his cereal and laughed. "We didn't forget anything Angel. You've spent a week obsessing about this visit, and there is now way we forgot anything."

"Are you sure? You can't think of anything else we need?"

He set his cereal on the table and sat beside me. "Nothing. We went out a few days ago and bought enough plates, cups and silverware, pillows and blankets, and shampoo for Mimi and Maureen, in there requested scents. You did all the food shopping, so I have no way of knowing if you forgot something there, but I'm sure you did great. You know, I don't remember you costing this much money in New York."

"Believe me, if you made this much money in New York, I would have. But there are no good stores in Boston that don't sell sweater vests."

"That's good to know, now let me eat my cereal in peace."

He smiled at me so I knew he was joking. "Alright, but if something goes wrong, I reserve the right to blame it on you, okay?" I gave him a kiss on the cheek as I left the kitchen and went to sit on the porch, ready to sit there for six hours waiting for my friends to arrive.


	12. Frist day of the visit

I had been sitting outside for nearly seven hours. They were an hour late. I had moved from my spot on the porch to sitting under the tree in front of the house, so bored, that I was reading some Aristotle book that I didn't understand. I finally gave up on it and put the book over my eyes, since at that same moment, a ray of sun was shining through the leaves on the tree and right into my left eye.

I heard a car drive by, but I didn't think anything of it, I was in Boston after all. The next thing I heard is what caught my attention. "Hey Angel Baby!" The book slid off my face as Mimi practically jumped on me. I didn't mind. I had missed them all so much. I threw my arms around her as Maureen added herself to the hug.

"You have _no_ idea how much I missed you guys." Mimi pulled me up as Mark got out of the car, his camera already held up to his eye and aiming at me. He looked at me through the camera, but lowered it, giving me a weird look. "What?"

He cocked his head to the side. "You look kind of like a guy."

Roger got out of the car, guitar in hand, and smiled at me. "Kind of? She's in pants. Wait, should we call you a he?"

"You don't have to, unless it makes you uncomfortable to call me a she." I gave Roger a hug and kissed him on the cheek. His body got stiff for a moment, but then he smiled and wrapped his free arm around me.

With that, Mark's camera was back up and running. "The new Angel and Collins life style. I will not call it improved, since I find nothing wrong with the way they were before."

I spent the next hour getting them situated in the house, showing them where everything was, and settling an argument over where everyone would sleep. So it was an hour later, Collins had one more hour or school before he would be home, and we were all sitting in a circle under the tree. I had my back to the tree, and Mimi was lying on her back with her head in my lap. Maureen was trying to get us involved in her new protest, which we all backed out of except Joanne, who offered helpful grammar and punctuation tips. Roger was fiddling with his guitar and eating a box of Cap'n Crunch, and Mark was putting new film into his camera.

I began stroking Mimi's hair, and she smiled up at me. "You're not coming home are you?"

"Not that I know of. At least not yet. And it's not that bad here. Except for the lack of you guys."

"And your favorite clothes."

"Ya, that too, but I see you guys took care of that for me, didn't you?"

Everyone suddenly looked at Mark, who stared even harder at his camera. The girls started laughing, but Roger punched Mark in the arm. "Dude! You said you burned all those pictures!"

Mark rubbed his arm. "I did burn them. Most of them." Mark looked up at me. "So I'm gonna need copies of the ones I sent you."

"Well, Collins has the one of all of you sitting in his office, and the rest are in my photo album, so I'll get them later." Roger looked mortified at the fact that the photo was out of my site, so Mimi threw a handful of cereal at him and he calmed down.

A flood of students came out of the school. Classes were out for spring break, and the students were wasting no time in getting away. A group of boys, the same group that had teased me a week before, walked by. The same boy who had done the talking, his name turned out to be Paul, stared at me with daggers. "Looks like the fag found some friends."

Mark's camera, with new film, flew up and focused on Paul's face. Roger jumped up, fists balled, but Mimi jumped after him and pulled him back. Where Roger would have punched the guy in the face, Mimi slapped him. "Who are you calling a fag? Better not be my Angel." She grabbed his collar. "Was it?"

I waved my hand. "Don't even bother Mimi, he's done it twice before."

She didn't care. "Take it back!"

He was obviously scared of Mimi, which I liked, but he stood his ground. "I'm not apologizing to some homo."

Roger went back to the guy and lifted him off the ground by his collar and pulled him to me. I stood up, just because I wouldn't have been able to see his face if I was sitting. Roger shook him. "Say you're sorry!"

"No!"

Joanne stood up very calmly, with Maureen still draped over her, and looked the boy in the eyes. "Hi, Joanne Jefferson. I'm a lawyer, and we have here a perfect case to sue you for verbal harassment, and we have it on tape. There is no judge in the country that would not agree that you are guilty of this crime. Would you like to apologize, or shall we take this to court?" Maureen stuck her tongue out at him

Paul rolled his eyes, causing Roger to shake him. "Fine. I'm sorry."

Roger dropped him. "Now you better get going."

He rejoined his group in a huff and began walking away, when the one boy in the group who had been nice to me turned back, smiled, and waved. "Bye Angel!"

I waved. "Bye Brian!"

Collins walked out of the school, and waved to us. Mark filmed him, and Roger and Mimi waved. Joanne and Maureen went back to kissing.

Mimi laid back down on my lap. "That happens to you a lot?"

"Not a lot, a lot. Just sometimes."

Roger sat back down, still in a huff. "If anyone else does that while I'm here, I'm gonna hit them."

Collins sat beside me, lifting Mimi's legs onto his lap, since that is the only place to sit, and Mimi clearly is not moving on her own. "If anyone does what?"

I gave his a quick kiss and I gave the rest of the group a glance, telling them not to say a word. "Nothing. We were just waiting for you."

"How was the trip?" Collins reached his hand out for the cereal, which Mark handed him.

"It would have been better if certain people were quieter."

Maureen sat up and glared at him. "It's not my fault that the toll booth prices are preposterous. Everyone needs to know that they should not pay them, and I'm going to be the one to tell them!"

Collins held up his hand, telling everyone to stop the arguing. "We all know what this can turn into, so let's just stop here."

We sat for just a moment, letting the silence sink in, when it suddenly began to rain. All the men, and Joanne, ran up to the porch. Maureen and Mimi started dancing in the rain, and when I tried to run up to the porch, Mimi grabbed my hand and made me dance with her. At first I pushed away. "Mimi! You're gonna ruin my shirt!" But she didn't let go, so I danced. Me, Mimi, Maureen, and eventually Roger, danced while Mark filmed us. We were forced to go inside when Maureen's drenched white shirk got one too many looks for Joanne's taste. We are pulled back into the house, where I hook my arms around Collins, trying to soak him, but he stops me by tickling me.

We eventually get dried off and were all lying in the living room at different angles. I was upside down with my legs hooked over the back of the couch, Collins was upright on one side of me, and Roger was lying with his head on my chest and his legs draped over the arm. Mimi was lying across all of us, with her head resting on Rogers shoulder. Joanne was sitting in a chair on the side, with Maureen at her feet, and Mark beside her, as they went over some kind of protest thing.

I began flicking popcorn at Maureen, but she kept catching it in her mouth, so I don't bother anymore. I hung my head limp over the couch and glanced around at everyone. "I'm bored."

For some reason, Mimi and Maureen both sat up at the same moment, Maureen knocking Mark in the head, and Mimi elbowing me in the gut, causing my to do a flip off the couch. Mark helped me stand up, and Mimi started apologizing.

"What did you too both jump for?"

Maureen grabbed my hand and started jumping. "Because we have something for you."

Mimi grabbed my other hand. "And Joanne said we could only give it to you if you said you were bored."

"Cause otherwise it would be medaling."

"And that's not what we're doing. We're only having fun."

"You ready?"

My glance shot from one to the other, and to Joanne. She was smiling at me, so I knew it wasn't a bad surprise. "Okay." They pulled my into my room and pushed me to sit on the bed. Mimi sat behind me and covered my eyes, while Maureen began rifling through her clothes.

I could hear rummaging and then a zipper, and when Mimi uncovered my eyes, Maureen was standing in front of me, with a wig in one hand, a shirt balanced against her chest, and a skirt in the other hand. Mimi hugged me from behind, and Maureen started shaking from excitement. "Go get dressed. We're taking you out!"

I must have smiled my biggest smile ever at that point, which with all the smiling I do, must be pretty big, but I still had a smidge of doubt. "I'm not allowed to dress up."

Maureen scoffed at me. "That's only on campus you said."

I could fell my smile grow. "But where would we go?"

"Don't worry, we did our research. Or actually, Mark and Joanne did our research. Now get dressed!" Maureen threw the clothes at me and walked out of the room, closely followed by Mimi.

I picked up the clothes and got dressed, loving the feeling of being in a skirt again after all this time. It had been nearly three months since I'd worn a skirt. They had picked out my favorite outfit too; an orange and yellow long-sleeved shirt with a green vest over it, a white shirt with colored flowers on it, zebra striped tights, black platforms, and my black bob wig. I felt so glamorous! I stood in front of the mirror, twirling. Ohh, I missed this.

I twirled one last time in front of the mirror and opened the door to the living room, walking out very casually. Roger and Mark clapped, and the girls made 'oooh' and 'aww' sounds. Collins stood up and lifted me in the air, spinning me around. "You look amazing."

Once he sat me down, I did a courtesy. "Thank you!" I hugged Mimi and Maureen. "And thanks you guys!"

"We knew you would!"

"And Joanne didn't want us to give it to you."

Joanne sat up defensively. "That's not what I said. I said I didn't want you to interfere if she was comfortably settled in."

Maureen sat up too, matching Joanne's posture. "That sounds the same to me!" She leaned back against Mark's leg with a seductive smile, though she never took her eyes from Joanne. "You believe me, don't you Marky?"

Joanne sat back in her chair with an exasperated sigh. You could see the smile forming on Marks face, but Roger pulled Mark away by the back of the collar. "Dude, you need a girl friend, _badly_."

Mark straightened out his collar and sat back down, in another chair, away from Maureen. The blush started riding in his cheeks, so he looked down and began polishing his camera. The task he always took up when trying to avoided other people's glances.

I stood up and grabbed Marks hand, pulling him up. "Come on Mark. Let's go do something."

Collins came up behind me and hugged me. "No use wasting how gorgeous you are on staying here."

I cupped my hands over his, which were still wrapped around my waist. "That's true." I pulled away and turned to the rest of the group. "So, where are we going?"


	13. at the Club

NOTE: People seemed to think I had something planned for where they were going, well I totally didn't. I make this up as I go, so I'm sorry if it doesn't live up to all the e-mails I got asking for more…And also, this is the first time I've had to look something up for a story, so sorry if I got something wrong… 

We all loaded back into Joanne's car, a very tight fit I might add, and began rolling down the street. It wasn't too bad in the front, Joanne, Collins and me, but in the back, there was a lot of arguing.

"Oww, your elbow is jamming into my leg!"

"No I didn't!"

"Not you, Mark."

"It was me sorry, but I'm at a very odd angle. I have no space of my own!"

"Then ride in the trunk!"

"There's no room in there. Roger's guitar is in there."

"Well would it be better if it was in here with us?"

"We have no room as it is."

Collins adjusted me on his lap. He must have been a bit uncomfortable too, but he said otherwise. "Well, we have all the room we need."

Just to make it worse, I stretched my arms out and leaned back on Collins lap, crossing my legs, so Roger hit me on the arm. It actually did hurt a little, so when I was rubbing my burse, Collins glared back at him. "If you have enough room to hit, you have too much room." With that said, he backed up his seat, which had been pulled as far forward as it could go.

Four separate groans were emitted from the back, and three people punched Roger. "OW! What? I didn't hit any of you."

"Ohh, so it's okay to just hit Angel?"

"Say you're sorry Roger."

Roger lowered his eyes. "Sorry Angel."

I smiled, just at how pathetic he looked. "It's okay Roger. I forgive you." I laughed, and he smiled at me.

Joanne finally sighed and looked through the rear view mirror into the back seat. "If you people don't shut up now, we're turning around."

Maureen slipped her arms around Joanne's neck and hugged her softly. "Sorry Pookie!" She kissed her and then leaned back onto Marks lap, which, by the looks of it, he was only slightly annoyed with. She began twirling her fingers in his sweater, and Mark's face got red. I shot her a look, and she backed off, winking like the diva she is.

I have the strongest urge to throw something at her, but think better of it, and lean against Collins again. "Are we there yet?" Yup, I'm growing restless.

Joanne took that as her cue to pull into a parking spot in front of a club. There were lights shining all around the door and windows. 'Jacque' was the name of the club, lit up in red blinking letters. "Yup. We're here." Joanne exited the car, closely followed by the others.

I smiled and kissed Collins before getting out of the car. This was way more than I was expecting. I club that I could go to, in drag, and still be ok. I started following after the others, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back. Brushing the hair away from my eyes and kissing me longer. "You look beautiful you know."

I smiled against his cheek, taking in the smell and feel of his skin. "I know that baby." I pulled away and looked at him, with more diva spirit in me than I had had in a long time. "Believe me, I know!"

"Come on you two!" Mimi called to up impatiently.

Followed by Maureen. "Ya! Let's get this show on it!"

I turned from Collins and started walking back to them, and for the first time since we moved here, my hips swayed when I walked, and my shoulders were thrown back. I could practically hear Collins smile. "There's my girl." He caught up to me and laced his fingers with mine.

AVAVAVAVAVAVA

Maureen and Mimi clung to me for the first ten minutes that we were there, jabbering different things about what they had heard about this place and how Joanne even called them to make sure that it was fit for me; I felt so special at that moment.

Slowly, different people drifted to different areas. Mark walked toward the stage with his camera, ready to take it all in through the lens. Maureen started dancing with different people, which prompted Joanne to get a drink from the bar, never taking her eyes from Maureen. After Roger had three beers, Mimi finally convinced Roger to dance with her.

And I danced with Collins, who seemed to sense all the looks I was getting and held me tighter. It was nice to be looked at in a flirtatious way, rather than in a 'you don't belong here' kind of way after all this time, but I don't think Collins liked people looking at me… period.

When I was finally out of breath, I sat down in the booth that Roger was occupying, since Mimi had taking to dancing with the other drag queens. Collins stood at the end of the booth. "You two want something to drink?"

"Just water, thanks."

Roger on the other hand, was smiling like an idiot. "Dude, they have the _best_ beer here. You _have_ to try it!" He handed Collins an empty beer bottle.

Collins just looked at him. "This is empty man." He handed it back to Roger.

Roger's jaw dropped. "Tom! You drank all my beer? You should get me another one. It's _only_ fair." He folded his arms over his chest and looked at Collins with determination.

Collins gave me an odd look and lowered his voice so that Roger wouldn't hear. Not that he would have noticed. He had taken to looking through his empty bottle like a pirate. "You think he'll notice if I don't bring him back one?"

I laughed softly. "I don't think you should risk it. Roger goes from silly to scary awfully fact when he's drunk."

Collins looked at Roger, who was pretending that him watch was a compass, and was trying to look north through his beer bottle. "I guess you're right." He kissed me on the forehead. "Be right back." He walked to the crowded bar to wait for drinks, and not more than a moment later, some guy in a tight black shirt and torn jeans slid into the booth beside me. He kind of resembled Mark a bit, with the messy blond hair and blue eyes, they even had the same squared off jaws, but this man had no glasses, and was looking far too smug to be Mark.

I looked at him and slid closer to Roger, not liking the vibe that this guy was giving off. "Can I help you?"

He slid closer to me. "It would help if you'd dance with me."

"No thanks. I'm waiting for my boyfriend." I slid up to Roger, hitting him with my leg under the table, silently asking for help.

Roger finally looked up and noticed that someone who was not one of his friends was sitting at the table. "Umm, sorry, but I reserved this table, and you're gonna have to leave." He pointed at the chair the man was sitting in. "That's Joanne's chair!"

The man remained very cool and calm. "I'll leave as soon as this lovely lady agrees to dance with me." He held out his hand, and I just looked at him.

Roger started giggling. It was odd. I had never heard him giggle before, and it only added to the fact that I thought he would make a fabulous drag queen.

The man looked at him. "What's so funny?"

"What's your name?"

"Eric. Why?"

"Well Eric, I'm going to say this in the nicest way possible. You're going to get your head smashed into the wall." More giggling. "I mean, Angel's boyfriend it tall." He leaned across the table and grabbed Eric's shirt, pulling him close as if Roger was telling the most secret story ever. "I mean he's really _really_ tall! Have you seen him! It's like this!" His hand flew up over his head and he shook it there. "I swear! He's like this tall!"

I brought my hand to my mouth, unable to hold in the laughter. Of all the moments to choose to come back, Mark walked to the table and sat down, instantly noting the person who didn't belong. He opened his mouth to say something, but Roger let go of Eric's shirt and grabbed Mark's. "Tell him Mark! Tell Eric how tall Collins is!"

Mark coughed. It looked like Roger was holding him pretty tightly. "What?" More coughing. "Rog, you're choking me!"

"No, he needs to know! Tell him how tall Collins is!"

Marks hands flew up to Rogers. Prying him off. "Ya he's tall! Collins is very tall! Now get off of me!"

Happy with the answer, Roger let go and smiled at Eric. "See I told you!" His hand flew up again as he mouthed the words 'this tall'. He grabbed his bottle again and looked at Mark, who was rubbing his neck. "Dude, I swear to god, you can see the ocean through this thing!"

Mark looked at me, still rubbing his neck. "What the hell is going on? How much did you let him drink!"

I just shrugged my shoulders. "I didn't let him have any, Mimi got him drunk…. Speaking of!" Mimi, Maureen, and Joanne walked over. Mimi sat on Eric's side, not noticing he was there. I figured that she was probably a little drunk too.

Maureen looked at Mark rubbing his neck. "Aww Markie! What happened to you?"

"Roger choked me."

"Aww. Here, let me help." Maureen took to rubbing his neck for him.

Mimi looked at Roger. "Roger! You can't just go around choking your friends! It's wrong!"

He handed her the bottle. "Here. Look through that." Mimi just looked at him, knowing that he was being stupid. Maybe she wasn't so drunk, just oblivious.

Joanne looked at the now empty table, then to Maureen, glaring at her. "You know Maureen, I think Mark's fine now."

Maureen smiled and stopped rubbing his shoulders, turning to wrap her arms around Joanne. "Ohh Pookie, I was only helping him out with those tough to reach spots." She kissed Joanne on the nose. "Do you need the same kind of help? I'd be happy to help both of you." She giggled.

Joanne rolled her eyes. "Is everyone here very drunk?"

"No." Mark.

"Maybe." Mimi.

"Seriously Mimi, look through the bottle." Roger. He looked up and seemed to see Joanne for the first time. "Ohh my god Jo! I saved you a seat, right there, and Eric took it!" He pointed to the chair Eric was sitting in.

She looked at him. "Who's Eric?"

Roger answered very nonchalantly. "He's the one hitting on Angel."

I think I was blushing at this point. Mimi looked at Eric, her jaw dropped to the ground. She started laughing, as did Mark and Maureen.

Eric just looked at everyone, his face contorted in an odd pose. "What's so wrong with that?"

Maureen giggled. "You obviously don't know Collins."

Roger grabbed her arm. "Don't worry, I took care of it. I told him how tall Collins is."

Mimi reached across the table for Roger's hand. "Ohh good. That will keep him away." They grabbed hands and laughed.

Maureen again joined in on the laughing. "Ya. Collins would scare him away."

Collins took that as his cue to come back. "I scare who?" He handed me my water and took a sip of his own beer, which Roger was eyeing with envy.

Mark looked up at him. "Eric."

"Who's Eric?"

This time, Mimi answered. "They guy who's hitting on your Angel."

Collins face went blank as he looked at the only new person at the table. "You're Eric?"

You could see a lump rise in Eric's throat. "Ya?"

Roger grabbed Collins arm and pulled himself up using Collins as support. "See! Didn't I tell you!" He waved his hand above Collins head, again mouthing 'he's tall'.

Eric slid out of his chair and pushed it in. "You know, I think I'd better be going."

Collins glared at him. "I think that that would be very wise of you." He set his beer on the table, and wrapped his arms around me, kissing the top of my head.

Roger looked at the beer, just sitting there. "Aww! It's lonely!" He grabbed the beer and drank it in nearly one sip.

Eric looked around the group, winking to Angel before walking away.

Roger again pointed to the chair. "Hey Joanne!" He called her name as if she was a mile away. "Your chair's empty now!"

"Thanks Roger." Joanne sat down and Maureen slipped into her lap, twirling her fingers in Joanne's hair as Mark watched Joanne with jealously in his eyes.

When Eric winked at me, Collins let go of me and made as if he was going to punch the guy, but I grabbed his arm and pulled him back to me, kissing him. "Don't bother. It's flattering really."

"Well, I don't want him flattering my girl. That's my job."

"And a very good job you're doing, so can we leave it at that?" I pleaded with him not to start a scene, which I knew he would.

But like always, I had a way of melting him. "Fine. I'll let it be." He kissed me again.

"Thank you baby." I let go of his hand, which Mimi soon grabbed.

"Hey Collins! Dance with me!" Without waiting for a response, Mimi pulled Collins away.

Maureen looked at Mark as if she was going to ask him to dance, and Joanne must have sensed this, because she grabbed his hand and pulled him up. "Mark, let's dance." Joanne and Mark walked off and Maureen pouted toward me.

Roger looked at the couples that had just walked off and were now dancing. "Is it odd that all of our partners are off dancing with other people?"

Maureen shook her head. "Not really." She was never a hypocrite. "Angel! Let's show them how it's done!" She reached her hand to me which I took and pulled me up.

"Hey! I wanna dance with someone!"

I looked at Roger with just a bit of shock. "But Roger, honey, you hate dancing."

He stood up defiantly. "Well, tonight, I wanna dance." He reached out his hand to me and Maureen. "One of you dance with me!"

Maureen looked at me. "We'll both dance with you. Show the others what there missing."

I nodded. "Alright. Let's do this!"

The three of us walked to the dance floor and joined the others. We started dancing, and it was actually fun. "Roger why do you never dance? You're great at it!"

He giggled. "I'm only good at it because I'm very drunk right now!"

Mimi over heard us and looked at Roger. "Are you kidding me! Roger can't dance?"

"I don't know Mimi. He's pretty good. It may just be you."

"To hell with you, let me at him!" Mimi took Rogers hand and they were off together.

Collins held out his hand to me, which I took, and Maureen was again left alone, but not for long. She soon had three men and two women dancing around her, and she was loving it…. But Joanne was not. She let go of Mark and made her way to Maureen, pushing through the crowd and grabbing Maureen's hand, pulling her out of the group and back to Mark. The three of them danced, which looked somewhat odd, but they all loved it.

We slowly drifted from our set groups so that it was just the seven of us dancing with the seven of us, much as it should be.


	14. Are you happy?

AN: Thanks so much for the reviews, and sweetiepie1019, chances are, Angel will never get sick… But then again, I just joined a RPG where I have to play her as sick, and it's actually really interesting, so maybe in the future she will get sick… SHE WILL NEVER DIE THOUGH! And I never even thought of what Angel was doing while Collins was at MIT… Darn! Now I need to be creative and actually think about it…pouts I am in need of a muse… 

The day after we went to the club, everyone seemed to go in separate directions. Roger was, gladly, sleeping of his hangover, and Mimi was comforting him. Collins had a class to teach, and Joanne went to watch. Mark, with camera in tow, decided he wanted to film on the school grounds for awhile, Maureen, wanted to be filmed, and I, well I had nothing better to do, so I went with them.

It was thankfully a beautiful spring day. Mark was flitting about campus, filming whatever moved, groups of students, trees, and things that didn't move, the building. He was going on and on about the great shots he was getting.

Maureen rolled her eyes. "Mark?" She called to him from her spot on the bench. She tugged on her shirt. "Do you think this shirt makes my breasts look too big?"

Mark stopped in his tracks, his camera still to his eye and shook his head. "No Maureen, you look great." I was so proud of him for not playing her game.

But Maureen was not so easily stopped. "But Markie…" Her voice was somewhere between a pout and an excited ten year old girl. "… You didn't even look at me!"

As if in defeat, Mark lowered his camera and looked at her. "You look great Maureen." This was said with such a lack of emotion that I almost laughed, had it not been for the enormous pout if earned from Maureen.

She sniffled a bit, not over doing it. She really was a great actress, no matter what others may say. "You don't love me anymore Mark!" She slid her hands up to her eyes and leaned over the bench, crying, or what really did sound like she was really crying.

Mark looked at me for just a moment before running to her side, handing me his camera, which to this day still shocks me, and taking her hand in his. "I'm sorry Maureen. You really do look amazing though!" She was still crying, so out of desperation, Mark played that special card that Maureen was looking for. "I still love you." It sounded as if he meant it as a friend, but we all knew better.

She dropped her hands and smiled, jumping up off the bench. "I knew that Mark! I just wanted to hear you say it!" Maureen went on with the task of hitting on some collage kids. They were in a coed group, and from where Mark and I were sitting, we couldn't tell if she was hitting on the boys or the girls. But none of them really looked upset about it.

Mark looked at me. "And then I remember why we're not together anymore." I laughed and handed him his camera, and for a second, he just looked at me, as if he couldn't even remember having handed it to me.

"You know Mark, for a second there, I was really proud of you. You need to learn to stand up to Maureen just a little." I slid off the bench and was sitting in the grass, looking up at him, kinda challenging, ya, but would he step up to the plate?

He looked back at me, and I could just see the timid look in his eyes. It was replaced with a scoff as he picked his camera back up. "Don't give me that look. You know I can't do that."

My voice rose to a sing song tone. "Mar-ky's afra-id."

"No I'm not! I just… don't see the point in starting something up." The blush rising in his cheeks said otherwise though.

"Mar-ky's a cow-ard!" I smiled up at him, to let him know I was joking, but the challenging stare was still in my eyes.

He turned of his camera and looked at Maureen, whose hand was now examining a necklace that was hanging dangerously low into a girls plunging neck line. "Hey Maureen!" Maureen dropped the necklace and looked back to Mark, her face questioning, with just a tiny bit of fear laced in. The fact that Mark was yelling loud enough to be heard from Collins room was probably what had educed the fear. "What time did your girlfriend say she would get back from the class!"

My hand flew up to my mouth as I tried to keep the giggles down. And Maureen's entire face dropped, closely followed by a look of 'ohh my god I'm going to kill you.' Mark, let's just say, had an utterly petrified look on his face as he held tightly to his camera.

As Maureen started marching back to us, I quickly stood up and grabbed Mark, since he was in too much shock to move on his own. "That was amazing Mark!" I looked over my shoulder at Maureen, and quickly began pulling Mark back to the house. "But, umm… ya, let's go."

Maureen didn't speed up, but actually stopped; smiled, waved over her shoulder to the group she was flirting with, and then practically bounced after us. But her eyes still looked ready to kill, she just wasn't showing that off to perspective one night stands.

AVAVAVAVAVAVAVA

Once we were back to the house, Maureen went into a full out rant at Mark, while he sat huddled in the corner of the couch. "What the hell did you do that for!"

He looked up at me with pleading eyes. "Angel dared me to!"

"I never said dare!"

"Same thing…" He looked back to Maureen. "I'm sorry okay?"

And that was the moment that Joanne and Collins chose to come home. She pulled off her jacket and hung in on the back of a chair. "What are you sorry for Mark?"

Maureen threw her arms over her chest. "I was flirting with a bunch of students and Mark went and told them I had a girlfriend." Maureen obviously failed to see what was so wrong with this.

Joanne shook her head. "Jesus Mark, what the hell were you thinking!" She shot Maureen a nasty look and sunk into the couch beside Mark.

Maureen let her arms fall to the side. "Ohh Pookie. It's not what it sounds like. I didn't even get their phone numbers. We were just talking."

"I believe you said flirting."

"What ever is the world for innocent, friendly chit chat."

"Innocent friendly chit chat it talking about the weather and movies. Flirting is talking about how great someone ass looks in leather. What were you and all these children talking about?"

Maureen pouted her lips, but Joanne just crossed her arms. "Ohh come on! This sucks! Pouting always worked on Mark." She looked at Mark with the same pouty face, and he quickly looked away, not letting her get to him.

"What ever Maureen. I really don't care." But you could tell by her voice that she really did care.

Maureen, however, sucked at picking up subtitle hints. "Great! Now we can just move on and have a great day!" She plopped down on Joanne's lap, and even I could see on Joanne's face that she didn't totally hate this scenario.

I looked at them and then finally realized that Collins was still standing by the door and I jumped up and kissed him. "Hey baby! How was school?"

"Well, you weren't there, so how good could it have been?" He smiled and let his bag drop off his shoulder and to the floor, wrapping his arms around me. "So, what exactly happened here?"

I bit my lip and smiled innocently. "Well, I kind of dared Mark to stand up to Maureen, and he did."

"Really!" He didn't even bother trying to keep the shock from his voice.

I laughed and nodded. "Mmhmm. I was very proud. You would have been too. But Maureen wasn't very happy about it."

Mimi came bouncing into the room with a blue box in her hands. "Come on Angel. I'm bored." She grabbed my hand and pulled me to the porch so quickly I barely had time to ask what was going on.

We sat on the rail of the porch and she opened the blue box, which was full of nail polish and other manicure supplies. She pulled out a bottle of blue nail polish and set it aside. "Talk to me Angel baby." She pulled a file out of the box and took my hand, filing my nails as I leaned back against the rail of the porch.

I looked up at the top of the trees, taking a few breaths before answering her. "I miss New York."

It didn't even break her concentration. "Does Collins know that?"

"I dunno. I guess so… Maybe." I looked back to Mimi, smiling slightly. "I hope not. I want him to be happy, and I know teaching does that for him."

"But he wants you to be happy too."

"Well…" I look back up at the tree. "I'm happy enough. I'm with him, so who really cares what I'm wearing or whatever?"

"You don't?"

"Nope." I lie.

Mimi looks up from my hands for the first time. "Angel. I don't buy that shit for a minute." She replaced the file to the box and grabbed the blue polish, shaking it for a moment before beginning to paint my nails. "I think Collins wants you to be actually happy, not just happy enough to be from day to day."

"Well what do you want me to do Mimi? Collins needs to be here, and if he does, I do, so let's just leave it at that."

I let out a huff of air and hit my head on the rail behind me, expecting Mimi to be do that 'I'm gonna yell at you, but it's for your own good' thing, but she doesn't. She just continues painting my nails. "What would you be doing in New York right now?" She looks at me for just a moment with a curious smile.

"I would be dancing. In all the glory that drag can bring." I know that I have a longing smile on my face because Mimi is looking at me with an eyebrow raised. "What?"

She hits my leg, pushing it over the side of the rail and making me stand up. She has finished my nails, and she picks up her box of polish. "Wait here. I'll be right back." She runs into the house and comes back three minutes later with her purse. She linked her arm with mine, and pulled me off the porch. "Come on. I'm taking you out."

"Where are we going?"

AVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVA

Mimi and I walked a good three miles before coming to a store she deemed worthy or accepting her money. I haven't walked that far since being in the city. I miss walking like this all the time. You live in a land with more country, and you forget what it is to have to walk to where you wanna go.

She pulls me into the store and I smile widely as I look at all the bright clothing. I drop my jaw and look at her. "Mimi… I can't…"

She holds a finger up to my mouth and 'shhhs' me. "Angel, I could really care less at the moment about what the school people say. If Angel is depressed, the world is bound to end, and we just can't have that. So we're buying to a whole new outfit, shoes, and a wig. And we may even splurge on make up!" She pushes me through the store. "So you look at stuff, and try on clothed till you faint." She bounces away from me with a smile and begins looking at shoes.

I watch her for a moment before turning to the clothes around me. I didn't think that this was a drag store. More like a –really- good quality costume store, without the costumes. Or it was a costume store and the owner, living in a conservative area, didn't want people to know that.

I picked up a green skirt, and just looked at it for a moment. It hade been month since I had shopped for clothes that weren't jeans or pj's, so I don't think anyone could blame me for the huge smile the crept across my face. I held the skirt in my hands, just looking at it for a moment before I decided that his really was something I wanted to do. I didn't have to wear it out, and therefore wouldn't be compromising Collins position at the school… This could work.

With the skirt, I grabbed a pink shirt that had random green designs all over it, and headed to the dressing room. I put it on quickly and looked at myself in the mirror. God I missed this. "Mimi!"

She came over, wearing black platforms, a long black vinyl jacket, a curly black wig, and dark sun glasses. "What's up? Find something?" She knocked on my dressing room stall, which I opened up for her. "Ohh my god Ang, you look awesome!"

I cocked my hip to the side. "I know, right?" I looked back to the mirror and did a twirl. The shirt waved when I was down twirling. "I think this is the one I wanna get." I looked to her for approval.

She took off the glasses and nodded. "I think that not to would be a crime." She held up her hands, as if her thumb and pointer fingers were guns. "And what do we think of me?"

I couldn't help but giggle. She did look very good in black. "You look awesome babe. You buying it?"

She looked down at herself, sticking her toes out. "I think I may need the jacket." She closed it tightly around her chest, and then opened it again. "Could really have fun flashing someone in this." We both laughed for a moment. It felt so great to be doing this with Mimi again. "And what about the rest of you Ang? You need shoes and tights and a wig still."

I rose and eyebrow at her. "Who said I was done?"

We spent the next hour and a half finding the perfect tights, lime green with different colored designs and patterns all over them, shoes, black whites with white trim up the sides that went halfway to my knees, and a wig, which very similar to my black boded one, only longer and with no bangs on it. It wasn't until after we paid for them, and Mimi got her jacket, that I decided I wanted to wear them home. I messed walking in heels. Mimi waited outside for me while I changed, and with another wave to the store owner, I decided that this really must be a drag store.

I went outside and linked arms with Mimi. "Shall we?"

Mimi threw her purse over her shoulder. "Lead the way my dear."

AVAVAVAVAVAVAVA

We were only three blocks from home when someone who was clearly not watching where they were going bumped into me and dropped all the books he was holding. "Ohh, I'm –so- sorry."

I didn't even get a look at his face as he crouched down to collect his books. I leaned down to help him. "Don't worry about it. Sorry about your books." I handed him his books as we both stood back up.

"No it's fine. They're just…" He stopped and looked at me for the first time. "Hey! You're the girl from the club last night? Angel right?"

"Umm ya…." I looked at him for a moment, trying to place him. "Ohh! Eric, right?"

He nodded. "Ya. Look, I'm sorry if I cam on a bit strong last night. I didn't mean to be so pushy." He did look as if he was actually sorry.

I waved my hand, and Mimi looked as if she was about to laugh. "Don't worry. Everyone seemed a bit out of odds last night." I glared at Mimi, and she instantly shut up. I looked at the books in his hands. "Where are you one your way too?"

"Home actually. I just transferred here." He pointed to the school a few streets down. "I'm a senior at MIT."

Mimi burst out laughing, and I bit my lip, holding the laugh back. "Really? What are you studying?"

"Computer engineering."

Mimi snorted. "Ohh god."

"Ohh really?" I tried to seem interested, rather than amused. "Enjoying your classes?"

Eric looked from Mimi to me, obviously not understanding what was so funny. "Umm, ya. But I had all technical classes today. Tomorrow I'll be getting into the more theoretical side of it."

Mimi didn't bother hiding her amusement. "Ohh really? That's soooo interesting."

"Are you taking Computer Aged Philosophy?"

He took a piece of paper form his pocket and looked it over quickly. "Ya, first thing tomorrow. Why?"

I smiled softly. "My boyfriend teaches that class."

Eric's face fell a bit, understanding why we were so amused. "Ohh… Is he gonna be mad at me for hitting on you?"

I opened my mouth to say something, but Mimi threw her arms around my shoulders and shrugged. "I don't know. He very well could be. Professor is very protective of his boyfriend."

I just looked at Eric with a slight smile as his face drew together in confusion. "What?" It did take him a minute to catch on. "His boy…" Realisation. "Ohh…" Shock. "Ohh!" He looked me up and down. "You're…?"

I nodded happily. "Mmhmm! I am. But it's very flattering that you couldn't tell!"

His face was still pretty blank. "Ohh… Well, you're welcome then I guess…? I need to…" He shifted his books from one arm to the other. "I need to get going. I have… Umm, tons of work to catch up on."

Mimi smirked. "Ya, you don't want to fall behind on your first day."

"Okay then…" He moved past us and began walking down the street, his head lowered.

I waved and called after him. "Okay, we'll talk to you later!" He didn't turn around, but I could see him nodding. I turned back to Mimi, and we both broke out laughing. I threw my arm around her waist. "Come on, we'd better get home."

"Mmhmm… We have fun stories to tell!"


	15. Go Away

AN: This is a shorter chapter, but I was bored and this just came to me… I have a week off from school, so I'm gonna try to get a few more chapters up… hopefully… I just didn't have the energy to write anything with a plot at the moment…

AVAVAVAVAVAVAVA

Mimi and I walked the rest of the way home, laughing about this and that. I was happy to have her back, even if it was just for a little while. They were all leaving in two days, and it would be me and Collins again. Which was great, cause I love Collins, but it's nice to have another girl around sometimes.

We walked up the porch and into the living room, where Collins and Mark were playing checkers, with fruit loops. I didn't know where everyone else was, so I just stood in the door way. It wasn't until Mimi plopped down onto the couch beside Mark that Collins looked up. His eyes went wide for a moment before that gorgeous smile I fell in love with spread across his face.

Mark whistled when he looked at me, and I did a small curtsy. "Welcome back Ang." He looked back to their game, eating two of Collins game pieces while Collins was too wrapped up in looking at me. I shot him a look, and he just shrugged and ate another piece.

I turned my attention back to Collins, who was still just looking at me, smiling. I shifted my weight, just a bit comfortable with the look Collins was giving me. I had seem it too many times to not know what it meant. I smiled at him too and took a step back, challenging him.

If it was possible, his smile grew even wider as he stood up and took a step toward me, raising an eyebrow.

Mimi rolled her eyes and looked to Mark. "Hey Mark, wanna learn how to make Spanish rice?"

He gave her an odd look, cocking his head to the side. "Not really, why?"

Mimi nodded her head toward Collins and I, but he didn't seem to understand what she meant. "Come on Mark! It'll be fun!" She stood up and smiled sweetly at him.

"Later Mimi, Collins and I are in the middle of a game." Collins didn't turn around to look at Mark, so I was the only one that could see him rolling his eyes.

Mimi frowned and grabbed Marks camera from the coffee table. "Mark! Let's go make rice!"

His eyes went wide and he stood up, staring at Mimi's hands. "Fine! I'll make rice with you, just give me my camera!"

Mimi stuck her tongue out at him and walked with the camera into the kitchen, Mark running after her whining.

Collins glanced behind him for the briefest moment, before turning back to me. "Angel… You look… Wow…"

I could feel the blush rising in my cheeks. "Thanks."

He took the last four steps toward me so we were standing only a foot apart. His fingers twirled around the hem of my skirt, but his eyes never left mine. "I told you. This is what makes you happy. This is who you need to be."

I leaned up on tip toe, wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him passionately. "Collins, -this- is what makes me happy." I went back to kissing him, and after a few moments, he placed his hands on the back of my thighs and lifted me up around him, never breaking the kiss. This is something we had gotten very good at over time. Still kissing and carrying me, Collins managed to move us to the couch, where he fell back, so I was sitting on his lap.

Still in the middle of our make out session, Roger came out of the room he and Mimi were staying in, glanced at us, never breaking his stride for the kitchen. "Nice skirt Ang." It was somewhat odd how placid he was and he walked right past us and to the kitchen.

I could feel Collins chuckling into the kiss and I pulled away, dropping my arms to my side and pouting at Collins. He lifted a finger and traced my bottom lip, which was still stuck out in the pout. Before he could pull his finger away, I pulled it into my mouth and twirled my tongue around it, bringing my hands up to rest on Collins chest. He sucked in a deep breath and brought his free hand to my lower back, pulling me closer to him.

My lips curled into a smile around his finger, and he suddenly tightened his grip on my back, and tossed me off him and onto the couch, so I was lying on my back with him sitting over me.

He ran his hand up from my calf, to my thigh, up my stomach and chest until it was resting on my neck. He tilted my head to the side and left a trail of kisses from my collar bone, up my neck, and finally back to my mouth.

We were kissing for several minutes before both our head pulled away with a sigh as Maureen and Joanne walked in the front door. Joanne stopped and her eyes went wide when she saw us, but Maureen didn't seem to notice our presence.

"Come on Pookie! Don't be like this! I didn't even give that guy my number. He gave me his."

Joanne looked from us to Maureen and shook her head. "Forget it Maureen. This is not the time nor place."

Maureen cocked her head to the side like a child. "Why don't you ever listen to me when I try to…"

Joanne cut her off by raising her hand in Maureens face. "Maureen, we'll talk in another room." She looked back to us. "Let's give Angel and Collins their privacy."

Maureen looked to the couch and her face lit up. "Ohh, you two are so cute."

Collins nodded. "Thanks Mo. Now get out."

Maureen didn't seem to notice what he had said after 'thanks'. She looked at me and her face lit up. "Angel! Are you wearing a skirt!"

Collins face fell again. "Yes, and she will be for the rest of the day at this rate." I hit him on the arm and Maureen giggled, grabbing Joannes arm and pulling her to the door.

"Come on Joanne, I think we should give these two some privacy."

We could just make out Joanne muttering 'wish I'd thought of that' as they left the room.

Collins looked back to me with a smirk and kissed me quickly on the nose. "Where were we?"

I placed my hand on the back of his neck and pulled him within an inch of my face. "Here." I leaned forward and kissed him again. His hand slid up under my skirt and rested on my thigh and I had to pull away from the kiss to draw in a sharp breath.

He raised and eyebrow at me. "Aren't skirts fun?" He began to run the tips of his fingers up and down my thigh, and I squirmed slightly, holding in a giggle. His hand had just started to move higher when a loud crash came from the kitchen and Mark came storming into the living room, closely followed by Mimi.

"Jesus Mimi! What the hell!" He was holding the tips of his fingers to his mouth.

Her hands were defencivly on her hips. "I –told- you to use a pot holder! Don't blame me for the face that you're stupid."

"I'm not! I didn't think it would be that hot. We –just- turned it on!"

"Why would I have told you to use a pot holder if it wasn't gonna be hot Mark!"

"I didn't…"

Collins cut Mark off. "Ohh my god you two!" He stood up and grabbed my hand, pulling me up off the couch as well. "You people are never invited here again!" He pulled me toward our bedroom and yelled over his shoulder. "Our friends ruin everything."

I looked at them over my shoulder quickly and shrugged as we entered the bedroom and the door closed behind us.

In the other room, Mark looked blankly at Mimi. "What did we do?"


	16. Photographs

AN: I just realized that I tend to switch between past and present tense in the middle of a chapter… I'm sorry if that screws anyone up, but I'm not gonna bother trying to fix it… Sorry, but I'm too set in my ways…

AVAVAVA

Collins and I were lying in bed facing each other. His eyes were closed, and I was seriously debating about whether I wanted to wake him up or not. He always looked so peaceful afterwards, and I smiled at the thought that I caused that smile on his face, even as he was sleeping, or so I thought. In one swift motion he reached out and pulled me up against him, resting his head on my shoulder. "Morning."

I looked over his shoulder at the alarm clock on the night stand, and giggled softly. "It's seven o'clock at night honey."

He opened his eyes and smiled at me. "It's almost bed time."

I roll my eyes playfully and kiss him before sitting up and holding my hands over my head, stretching out my back. "Not really. We have five night owls staying over." I turned back to look at him. "And anyway, tomorrow's Friday. That means they're leaving in only three days. We need to make the most of having them here."

Collins sat up with a sigh as I slid out of bed and pulled my skirt back up over my legs and waist. Collins whistled behind me and I turned to shoot him a look. He held up his hands in mock surrender. "Can I help it if you're gorgeous?"

I lifted my hand and pushed my hair behind my ears. "No, I guess you can't." I laughed and went over to his side of the bed kissing him again. He looked over my face and to my hair, and I took a step back, trying to figure out what he was looking at. "What?"

"You're hairs getting kind of longish." I lifted my hand to my hair again, and turned to the mirror. My hair had always grown pretty fast, but I normally kept it short. It made wearing wigs easier. It was about two inched long now, since I hadn't gotten it cut since we moved to Boston. I made a face and wrinkled my nose as I looked at my reflection. "What's wrong?"

I turned back to him with the odd look still on my face. "I don't like my hair this length is all. I hate that stage of growing out your hair where it's not long enough to be long, but it's long enough that you can't call it short, you know?"

Collins just looked at me blankly. He chose to ignore what I said all together. "I think it's good, that you're growing your hair out."

"Yeah, well, if I can't wear wigs, this is next best I guess. I'm gonna miss not being able to change it all the time though, like when the mood just hits me."

"Well, can't you still tie it up or something and put a wig on?"

"Yeah, it's just harder with long hair." I gave him a small shrug. "Hey, you've never seen me with long hair!" I pulled my underwear up under my skirt and chose to step into my slippers rather than my platforms.

Collins laughed and shook his head. "Can't say that I have. When was it long?" He crossed his legs on the bed and watched as I went to my dresser and pulled out a pink box. "I thought you kept all your pictures in a green box…?"

I took the bow with me to the bed and sat beside him. "I do, but those are pictures of my New York life. These are pictures from before then." He nodded as I began looking for the picture my sister had taken all those years ago. "When I was thirteen, and my sister was sixteen, back when we were still living in Puerto Rico, I had my hair grown out past my shoulders. It wasn't as odd for boys to have long hair where I was at the time, and since I couldn't wear wigs, it was the next best thing."

I continued to rummage through the box for a moment before pulling out a picture and handing it to Collins. Even though I was the only person in the picture, I pointed to myself. "That's me." I was sitting under a tree in spring, with the orange blossoms just starting to bloom. My legs were crossed with my knees drawn up to my chest, my arms folded over them. My lips were spread in a wide smile, I had been laughing when my sister snapped the picture with her new camera. She had been begging for one for years, and she had been doing extra chores any chance she could to be able to afford it. But the point of pulling out the picture, my back was to the camera, but I had my neck craned to look into the camera, and you could see my long dark hair falling halfway down my back, soft curls tucked behind my ear.

Collins was silent for a moment. "Wow. So you've always been this beautiful? It was never something you worked on?"

I smiled and shook my head. "Nope, s'all natural!" I giggled softy and reached to take the picture back from him, but he held up his hand, taking the picture out of reach. "What are you doing with it?"

"Probably making copies so I can put one in my wallet, one on my desk at the school, hang one on the will with all those pictures of our friends you hung up, and still have one for that photo album you keep talking about making one day."

I dropped my hand to my sides and looked at him for a moment, before kissing him, and standing back up, grabbing my shirt from its spot on the ground. "Do with it what you will. It's just been sitting in that box for four years. You know, I haven't even looked through it since my sister packed it up for me when I left home. She handed it to me as I was walking out the door." I went to pick up the box, but Collins grabbed that away too. "What now?"

"Well, I wanna see what other pictures you've been hiding from me." He began rummaging through the box as I pulled my shirt over my head.

"Can't you do it another time? We have company."

"Sorry, no. I'm too interested at the moment." He looked from the pictures and up to me, flashing me a gorgeous grin. "I'll be out in a few, don't worry."

"Alright, see you in a few." I blew him a kiss and went back out into the living room, closing the door behind me. Marks camera instantly turned to me, and I blew another kiss in his direction. "Hey Marky." I walked over and sat crossed legged in the chair across from him. It used to be a bit nerve wracking to have his camera on me when we talked, but I'd long since gotten used to it. He didn't want to miss anything, and I understood that. "What's up?"

"Mimi and I made rice." Even with the camera in front of his face, I could see the smile on his lips. "And I only got hurt twice! I cook, and it was good, and I didn't have to go the emergency room with third degree burns!"

I laughed despite myself. "That's great Mark."

He let out a heavy sigh. "Ya, it was great. There's still some left if you want." He lowered his camera. "I was about to put some new film in my camera anyway. You're brilliant smile just finished up this roll."

I stood back up and flashed my smile again. "Glad to be of help." I walked past him and into the kitchen, where the rest of them were sitting around with bowls of rice in front of them.

Without a word, Roger reached out and grabbed a bowl off the table, holding it out to me. "You must be hungry." He winked at me as I took the bowl.

"Thanks Roger. Mark was just ranting about the experience of making good rice."

Mimi smiled up at me. "Ya well, I let him do most of it… With a lot of back seat cooking on my part." She handed me a spoon. "Try it. He really did a good job."

I took the spoon and took a bite. "Wow. I didn't think anything Mark made would taste good. But yum."

Mimi threw Maureen a glare. "I actually made some too, to show Mark how, but _someone _went and accidentally knocked it off the stove."

Maureen just shrugged her shoulders and cuddled against Joanne, who didn't seem to protest the oddly silent drama queen beside her. When Mimi had away, Maureen's eyes went just a bit wide in my direction and she shook her head, mouthing 'not an accident' when no one was looking.

I couldn't help but smile as I nodded my head toward the kitchen, letting only her see. "Be right back guys. I'm gonna go get a drink."

Maureen nodded and stood up. "Me too."

We walked together to the kitchen and I turned to Maureen with my arms crossed over my chest. "What did you do Maureen?"

"Well, Mimi and Mark left the room when it was cooling, and I was alone in the kitchen, so I tried a bite of Mimi's and it was wicked good and all that. So then I tried a bite of Marks, and it was just…." She made a face. "Not good. And Mark was so proud of making it, and I didn't want him to get crushed! So I switched the pots, and then when they came back in, I made a big show of 'accidentally' knocking over Mimi's rice. She got mad, and she made _me_ clean it up!"

I pretended to find it as shocking as her. "No! Not you? The mess maker?"

She didn't catch on to my tone. "Ya! And they hadn't tasted it yet, so they could only taste Marks batch, so of course it was good! And that was all my doing, and look how happy I made my Marky!"

I would have said something about the 'my Marky' comment, but Roger came into the kitchen and grabbed a few beers from the fridge. "Come on you guys, we're in the living room drinking. You in?"

Maureen followed his suit and grabbed the remaining beer from the fridge and winked at me. "Don't you know it." I put my bowl of Mimi's rice in the fridge and followed them into the living room, where everyone was now sitting around. Roger and Maureen handed out the beers, taking a seat next to their counter parts.

With no Collins out yet, I decided to sit next to Mark, snuggling up against him. He blushed softly as he took the cap off his beer and took a small sip. We all knew he couldn't handle his alcohol, so he had to make this beer last how ever long it took the rest of us to drink four. I laughed and kissed him softly on the cheek. "You're such a cutie Mark!"

He blushed deeper and rolled his eyes. "Gee thanks."

"See Mark?" Maureen perked up. "Whenever I told him that, he always changed the subject. But Ange, if you think he looks good now, you should see him naked." Mark was turning a deep shade of red, and attempting to fall into the couch. "I swear, if I were still into guys, I'd…"

"So then…" Joanne cut her off, and looked around the group. "So, what are we drinking to tonight?" She took a sip of her beer and glared at Maureen, who didn't even flinch.

Roger gave her an odd look as he cocked his head. "What do you mean, 'drinking to'? There's beer, so we're drinking." He finished off half his bottle in one gulp.

Joanne just rolled her eyes. "How nice. Weren't you just complaining of a hang over an hour ago?"

He held up his bottle in a 'cheers' kind of way. "That was an hour ago Jo. Get with it." And in one more gulp, his first beer was gone, and he was reaching for another.

"You know Roger…" I watched him open his second beer. " If you were anyone else, I'd think you have a problem."

He flashed me that rock star smile. "_If_… I was anyone else."

I nodded. "_If_."

Collins came into the living room at that moment, holding out an envelope of pictures to me and nearly knocking the bottle that I had yet to open out of my hand as he plopped down beside me one the couch. "How come you're so sad in these ones?"

I took the envelope from him and looked at it for a moment, not opening it. "I don't know. I told you, my sister gave me the box when I left home, and it was a bit too depressing for me to ever look through." I didn't really like thinking of my past all that much. Most of the bad memories out weighed the good ones.

"Well, look at um. I wanna know what made you so sad." I gave him an odd look. Why did he wanna know what depressed me as a child so much? But he gave me a small pout. "And anyways, there's a guy in a bunch of them."

I laughed shortly. "Ohh, so this is an 'I wanna know if I'm better than all your ex's' kind of thing?"

He shrugged with a simple smile. "Maybe a little."

"Okay fine, I'll look at them, but if I tell you they were better, remember, you brought it on yourself." I opened the envelope and held them in my hands for a moment, still looking at Collins.

He kissed me softly and pulled away. "I'll take my chances."

I looked down at the pictures in my hand for the first time and took a sharp breath. I quickly turned to the next one, and the next and the next, my breathing growing shallow. Sure, I looked happy in most of them, though Collins made it sound like I was depressed and crying in all of them. My hands started to shake as I held the pictures, not wanting to look, but not being able to take my eyes away.


	17. Him

AN: This is what happens when it's three thirty in the morning, and you're still not tired… This chapter is WAY different from the rest… It was coming out to be every chapter kind of pointless little funny things, and I felt like it needed some substance… And also, the only thing that gives me the will to update was waking up yesterday and having six reviews for chapter 15… those who reviewed the quickly, you rock, and I wish there were more people like you! This updating is all for you…

I just realized I said the same thing here twice, but I fixed it… It's good now… And spelling corrected... Thanks

AVAVAVAVAVAVA

I looked down at the pictures in my hand for the first time and took a sharp breath. I quickly turned to the next one, and the next and the next, my breathing growing shallow. Sure, I looked happy in most of them, though Collins made it sound like I was depressed and crying in all of them. My hands started to shake as I held the pictures, not wanting to look, but not being able to take my eyes away.

Collins grabbed my arms. "Angel? What's wrong baby?"

I yanked my arms away violently and continued to flip through the pictures. The guy with his arms around my waist, kissing my neck. We were smiling. Me leaning against the guys chest, kissing the tip of his nose. We're smiling.

"Shit." Me on the couch with the guy on his knees, serenading me. We're smiling. Me and the guy dressed up for Halloween, me as a princess, and him my prince. We're smiling. Me with my back to the guy, him looking like he's trying to plead about something. I'm crying. Me alone with my fingers clutched tightly around my wrist. I'm crying.

"Fuck. She took pictures of all of it." Him with his fingers around my wrist, pulling me in one direction, me struggling in the other. I dropped the pictures seeing that one and stood up sharply. My arms and hands were shaking, and I felt like I was about to vomit.

I doubled over and grabbed my stomach and Collins stood up beside me, taking my arms in his hands, trying to steady me, but I yelled and pulled away again. "Angel? What's wrong?"

I brought my hands to my temple, where people were now yelling at me. Without even looking at him, I could hear what he was doing. "Turn the damn camera off Mark!" And I could hear that he did. I wanted to turn to him and apologize for yelling at him, but I felt five fingers wrap around my wrist and I yelled again, dropping to the floor. "No!" I tried to pull my arm back. "Please stop it!"

Mimi stood up and looked at me. "Angel?" She looked to Joanne. "What's wrong? What's she doing?"

Joanne had the same look of shock on her face. "How should I know? I just saw the same thing you did."

Collins knelt down in front of me. "Baby? Angel, you need to talk to me."

I was now using my free hand to try to pry his fingers off my wrist. When that didn't work, I moved on to hitting him repeatedly in the chest with my free hand, but I wasn't very strong.

Collins placed a hand on my leg, trying to calm me down, but I instantly started crying, throwing all my weight into getting him off me. "No! Bradley, please don't!"

"Bradley?" Collins looked over his should to Mimi, the one who had known me longest in the group, her entire face fell. "Mimi? Who's Bradley?"

Mimi ignored his question. "Collins, get your hands off of her."

"What's going…"

"Just get your hands off of her Collins!" Mimi moved forward and pushed him away. I had been pulled away from him so hard that I fell back once he let go.

Mimi knelt down beside me, but didn't touch me. "Angel. That's not Bradley. That's Collins. He's not going to hurt you."

I brought my hands up to shield my face as she spoke, not really hearing what she was saying. I used my heels to push my self a few steps back. "Go away!" As if someone had just toughed me, I kicked my leg out and stood up, my hands still attempting to cover and protect my face. "Please stop!" My arms continued to shake as if someone was attempting to pull them away from my face, and I yelled once I was backed up against the wall. "Bradley, just go!" I yelled again, but it broke in my throat with a fit of sobs. "Please stop! No!"

"Mimi? What the fuck is going on?" Collins just didn't know what to do.

But again Mimi ignored him and stepped closer to me, just a foot from my face, but again not touching me. "Angel. Bradley's not here. He's gone and he's never going to be able to hurt you again. You need to stop this." She gently took one of my hands in hers, and I pulled away again, screaming. "Angel, bebé, yo estoy aquí. Es todo bueno. Estoy aquí. Es Mimi." She took my hand again, and this time I didn't pull away, and I slowly opened my eyes.

"¿Es ido él?" My words were still broken up in a fit of sobs. I squeezed Mimi's hand, and she lifted the other to the side of my face, with only a slight flinch from me.

"El es ido realmente. It's okay Ang, he's gone. He went away." I suddenly looked around the room and remembered where I was, and instantly fell against Mimi's shoulder, crying.

She rubbed comforting circles on my back as my tears poured. "I'm so… I'm sorry…. It wasn't…" I stood back up and looked frantically around the room. "Collins?"

He came up to me and held out his hand. "I'm here Ang."

I took his hand and pulled away from Mimi, throwing my arms around Collins. "I'm so sorry!"

He softly pulled me toward him. "Shh, Angel. It's okay. You're okay."

I just stood there, for at least five minutes, leaning against Collins for all the support it took me to stand. It was a good while before I pulled away, looking hesitantly up at Collins and took a step back, letting my arms drop to my sides. "I need to go to bed now." I reached my hand behind me, feeling around for Mimi, until I felt her slip her hand into mine.

She slipped her other arm around my waist, and pulled me in the direction on the bedroom. "Come on Ang, I'll get you squared away."

I nodded softly and stopped for a moment to look back down at the pile of pictures on the floor, and then to Collins. My eyes watered up again, and Collins nodded. "I'll get rid of them Angel."

I smiled softly at him. "Thanks." I turned back and walked into my room with Mimi, sitting on the bed as she closed the door behind us.

"Angel, it happed again, huh?"

My eyes must have been sparkling at the amount of tears that were building up. I barely managed to squeak out an 'mmhmm'. "It's just all so real Mimi. I didn't mean it." I looked up at her, wiping my tears away, and attempting to lighten the mood by laughing. "Collins must think I'm crazy huh?"

Mimi looked over her shoulder at me from her spot at my dresser, where she grabbing my flannel pants and a tank top. "Never Angel. Collins wouldn't think that if he knew."

"But he doesn't Mimi. Only you do." She reached her hand out, and pointed to my shirt, flicking her finger up. I took my shirt off and dropped it to the floor as she handed me the tank top, which I slid on.

"Skirt." I did the same with my skirt and she handed me the flannel bottoms. "Well, you know Angel, maybe you should tell him."

I slid up the bottoms and sat back down on my bed. "I can't Mimi. I'm gonna have to go over the whole thing in my head again, and I'll flip out and try to beat him up again."

Mimi slid into the bed beside me and pulled the blankets up over our legs, and we sat there against the pillows. "Well, Angel, I think he needs to know. I can't believe you two have never had that talk before."

"We did, but after he told his side, I changed the subject."

"Angel…?"

"Ya Mimi, I know. I wanted to. But I can't put my self through reliving it. I can't"

"I know Angel." I slid down so that I was lying in the bed, hugging the pillow to my chest as Mimi stroked my head softly. "Angel?"

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "Ya Mimi?"

"Do you want me to tell him?"

I opened my eyes and looked up at her sadly, nodding my head. "Would you?"

"For you Angel, anything."

"I really would, really, I wanna, I just can't... I can't."

I felt myself starting to shake again, but Mimi leaned down and pulled the blankets up over my shoulders and kissed me on the forehead, calming me down again. "I know babe. I know. You get some sleep." She slid out of the bed and fixed the blankets around me. "I'll be back later."

I closed my eyes again. "Thanks Mimi."

"Algo para usted Angel… Anything for you." She closed the door behind her as she walked back into the loving room.

**!Outside of Angel's POV!**

Roger had a bowl in front of him and he was going through the pictures one by one, burning them into the bowl. He seemed to be enjoying the part he was playing in all this.

Collins looked up when he heard the door open again and stood, his arms crossed over his chest. "What the hell was that Mimi? What just happened?"

Mimi walked over the Roger and picked up one of the pictures that Roger had yet to burn, it was Angel, sitting with her knees tucked up under her chin protectively. She was attempting to smile for the camera, but she had a single tear trickling down her cheek. She took in a deep breath and handed the photo to Roger before looking back to Collins and sliding up on the arm of the chair Roger was sitting in. "The guy in the pictures is Bradley Sanchez. He was Angel's boyfriend for…" Mimi thought about it for a moment. "three years, I think."

"So why was she so afraid of him?" Collins already had an idea of what it was, but he was hoping against all his instincts that he was wrong.

"Well, let me tell the whole story Collins. Can't just jump in at the end." Mimi took another deep breath, preparing to tell the same story Angel had told her four years before. "They had been best friends since third grade, and Angel's parents even loved him, which was probably the only reason they didn't kick Angel out of the house when they found out he was gay, cause they liked her boyfriend so much.

But anyway, they started dating when they were fourteen, and where very happy for all that time. Everyone in her family was oddly accepting of him. Not at all what Angel was expecting of them, but they had never had sex or anything, since Angel had the whole 'find the one' perspective thing on that, and she didn't think you could know when you were that young. So after about two and a half years, maybe a little longer, Bradley started getting distant, and Angel couldn't figure out what had happed to him. Well, after the three years were up, she found out that Bradley had cheated on her, and when she confronted him about it, she also found out that he got AIDS during that cheating session. Being Angel, her pity and urge to help him though this was greater than her anger over the cheating thing. She said she was going to help him, that it would all be okay. But that wasn't what he had in mind for the helping."

Collins yes went wide. "No, no no… Not like that."

Maureen looked from Mimi, who was nodding, to Collins. "I don't get it. What happened?"

Joanne placed a hand over Maureen's. "He raped her?"

Maureen gasped. "No!"

Mimi's eyes were getting cloudy. "Ya. Just like what just happened, that's why she was freaking out before. I talked to her later that very day, and she step by stepped it for me, and did the same thing." Mimi stood up and took Collins hand, standing with him in the middle of the room…

Demonstration time. "She told him she would be there to help him through everything, and he kissed her…" Mimi leaned up close to Collins face. "…but she pulled away. She loved him, but still, with the cheating, she couldn't kiss him anymore. Not like that."

"And he grabbed her arms…" Mimi placed Collins hands over her arms. "…And again she pulled away." Mimi drew her arms back quickly." And when she started to back away, he grabbed her wrist…" Mimi held out her arm, and Collins caught on to what they were doing and grabbed her wrist. "… And she tried to pull her arm back, but he wouldn't let go, just like before."

"And without him letting go of her wrist, she fell to her knees, still pleading with him to stop." Mimi fell to the floor. "And he knelt down in front of her." Collins did. "And placed a hand on her thigh." Collins did. "And she tried to push him away." Mimi leaned toward Collins, pressing her free hand into his chest, pretending to try to push him away. He stood off just a bit, but then he grabbed her thigh again, and she jolted and kicked him."

Mimi pulled her hand free and fell back, from her knees to her bottom, and she used her heels to take a few steps back before standing up. "See? Just like Angel did before." She lifted her hands up to her face and motioned for Collins to stand up too.

"She continued to try to get him to back away." Mimi kept her arms up and took a few steps back to the wall until she was against it. She motioned for Collins to step closer to her, which he did. Once he was right in front of Mimi, she took his hands and held her arms up over her head, with Collins pinning hers to the wall.

Mimi let out a sigh. "And there you have it."

Collins took a step back and let Mimi's arms fall to her side. "Shit… no." Nobody knew what to say. This was all so… This kind of stuff didn't happen to Angel. Collins looked desperately to Mimi. "So told you all that the same day?"

Mimi nodded. "When she was trying to figure out if she should call the cops or not."

His eyes went wide. "She did right?"

A sad smile spread across Mimi's lips. "No. She never did."

"And why the fuck not?" Collins was furious about this, and he felt that he had good right to be.

"She said the only reason he did it was because he was depressed about the disease, and jail would make that worse on him."

Collins 'pffed' out a hiss of hot air. "Why the hell should that matter! He deserves to rotting in jail. Why did she care?"

"Because she's Angel." It was odd that that simple sentence really did explain it.

Maureen bit her bottom lip. "So much for waiting for the right person huh?"

Joanne hit her on the arm. "Jesus Maureen!"

"What! I didn't mean it in an insensitive way. I'm just saying."

Mimi gave Collins a comforting smile. "She still did, with her free will I mean."

Collins gave her an odd look. "Did what?"

"Waited for you."

Collins just didn't know what to say. He got AIDS from sleeping with every guy in his freshman class. Angel was ripped apart by someone who she loved. He brushed a hand over his face, trying to wake him self up. "I should… ya, okay." He walked over to the bedroom door and opened it softly, stepping in and closing it again.

He stepped to the side of the bed and coughed softly. "Angel?"

**!ANGEL'S POV!**

I opened my eyes and smiled up at Collins. "Hey baby." I sat up just a bit, supporting myself with my elbow. "Mimi told you?"

He nodded slowly. "Ya… Is it okay if I lay down with you?" I slid over in the bed, allowing just enough room for him to slide in beside me. He seemed afraid to touch me at the moment, thinking I was going to go off on him again or something, so I made the first move and snuggled up against him, laying my head on his chest. I could feel him let out the sigh of relief he was holding in as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer to him and kissing the top of my head. "I'm so sorry Angel."

My body tensed up again, and Collins turned over on his side to face me, still holding me close to him. "Why didn't you ever call the cops?"

My body stayed tense. "He needed help. If he had gone to jail, who would have helped him?"

Collins ran his hand over my arm and I calmed back down, melting against him. In his mind, he was thinking that if he went to jail, he would have been raped too, and that was what Collins thought he deserved, but he would never say that to Angel. "Why are you such a good person?" He kissed me softly, again trying not to push me.

"It seems better than wishing death and pain on everyone who has ever hurt me." I leaned up and kissed him harder, trying to get his to drop this guard he had up around me at the moment. "I'm okay Collins, really. I have you now, and I'm okay."

Collins laughed softly. "I hear I'm your special someone."

I gave him a mock glare. "Ya well…" I couldn't think of something clever to say to that. He was my special someone and no witty banter would make that any different. "I'm okay with that."

"You not one of those people that's only with one person and then gets curious too see how other people are different?" He raised an eyebrow at me, knowing the answer already, but giving me a challenging glare all the same.

I pretended to look shocked. "Are you telling me there is someone better?" I sat up in bed. "God, if I knew that I wouldn't be wasting my time with you!" I pulled the blankets off and began getting out of bed. "Just point the way."

Collins pulled me back to him. "Hey! I didn't say that! I just said wondering." We both started laughing, curled into a heap in the middle of the bed. I kissed him again, and this time he dropped his protective bubble and kissed me back, pulling me toward him.

It was a few minutes before I pulled away and just looked at him. "But really Collins. I'm fine. I have you and I'm good and I'll be okay."

He kissed the top of my head. "I know. You always are." We rested back down on the bed, my head against his chest, his arm around my shoulders.

We had just closed our eyes when the smoke alarm went off and there was a crash.

**beep**

"Shit!"

**beep**

"Put it out!"

**beep**

"With what?"

**beep**

"Step on it!"

**beep**

"I'll ruin my shoes!"

**beep**

"Have Joanne do it. Her shoes are boots."

**beep**

**stomp stomp stomp**

**beep**

"Wow Roger, you're really a wuss."

**beep**

"Just stop the damn beeping!"

Collins and I looked at each other and sighed.

**beep**

The door opened and Mark poked his head in. "Umm guys? I think we ruined a few of your throw pillows." **be.. CRASH THUD.. **Mark winced as the beeping stopped. ("See? I'm not a wuss. I got the beeping to go away.") Mark smiled sheepishly at us. "And I think you may need a new smoke detector too."


	18. Fine

Very short chapter, but I felt the need for this to stand on it's own in order to move on for now… I'm not all that good with uncomfortable groups… I'm not all that good writing for groups at all… I'm much better with one person at a time, or one on one… so I need to move on, but don't worry, this plot line is not over… 

I woke up the next morning, and oddly found the other half of the bed empty. I sat up, looking around the room, and it was also empty. I couldn't ever remember Collins being up before me. He was always one to sleep in, usually a few hours if he didn't have to work.

I pulled the covers off and slid out of bed, putting on my slippers quickly before making my way into the living room. It was also empty. "Hello?" Where was every body? I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and looked to the kitchen door, where I could hear hushed voices. Making my way to the door slowly, I pushed it open, and saw everyone either crowded around the stove, or sitting at the counter. I don't think they saw me open the door.

Mimi and Joanne were mixing some kind of batter, luckily, since they were the only ones I've ever known to cook anything good. Collins was flipping something in a pan, and laying them out on plates, which Maureen was setting out on the counter. And Mark and Roger were sitting at the counter, squeezing oranges. Aww! They were all making breakfast! It was cute to watch, though some of the things they were saying made it just a little more funny than sweet.

Maureen stuck her pinky in the batter Joanne was mixing, and licked it off, making a face. "Eww! That stuff is gross! I don't think you did it right."

Mimi rolled her eyes. "Pancake batter never tastes good Mo. You have to wait till Collins cooks it."

"Are you sure you put enough sugar or whatever in it? It just doesn't taste right."

"I think I know how to…"

Mimi was cut off when Roger screamed and jumped up, brining his hand to his eye. "Jesus Mark! You got the orange juice in my eye!"

Mark bit his lip. "I didn't mean to! I can't help where the juice squirts."

"Well you have glasses to protect your eyes." He held his hand out to Mark. "Give them to me!"

Mark took a step back. "I can't see without my glasses."

"Ya well the way you make orange juice, neither can I. So give them!" He took a step closer to Mark, who continued to back away, until Roger jumped at him and pinned him to the floor, wrestling the glasses away from him.

Roger stood back up; with a smug smile as he slid the glasses onto him own face. Mark stood up, squinting and holding his hands out in front of him, looking for Roger, but barely ably to make out his figure. "Come one Rog! This isn't funny."

Roger dodged his hands every time they got close. "I think it's pretty damn funny."

I stepped into the kitchen and coughed softly, all eyes looking to me as I mock glared at the two boys. "Morning children."

They both turned to me at the same moment, Rogers eyes multiplied my three, Marks squinting to make out anything in the room. Roger smiled. "Morning Angel!"

I couldn't help but smile. "Hey boys." I walked the rest of the way into the kitchen and leaned against the counter. "What's everyone doing?"

Collins kissed me softly on the cheek and Mimi pushed a plate of pancakes in front of me. "Making you breakfast."

I rose and eyebrow at him and took a small bite of the pancakes as Roger handed me a glass of orange juice, which I was a bit weary of trying. "Me and Mark did all the juice stuff our self!"

I gave him a genuine smile and took a sip. "Sooo…" I looked over all of them, all of who were smiling at me, fakely at that, except Maureen who always had that smile. "How long until this special treatment wears off?"

They all looked away, and Mark tapped Roger on the shoulder, prompting him to give back his glasses, which Mark slid onto his nose, and blinked at me a few times. "We just want to make sure you're okay Angel."

"We're not trying to push anything." Joanne set the batter down, since there seemed to be enough pancakes made.

"You guys, I'm fine." They didn't seem to believe me. "Really! All this attention you bring to it is what makes it harder for me." I took another bite of the pancakes. "Just… Move on, change the subject."

They were all quite for a few minutes before Maureen looked back up with a smile. "Does anyone wanna go out tonight? I'm bored." Of course Maureen changed the subject, but everyone else groaned. "No come on! I'm bored, and we have to entertain me!" She pouted and grabbed Joanne's arm. "Come on Pookie! Let's do something."

"Ohh Maureen…" Joanne whined, pulling her arm back.

"Ohh Maureen what? I'm not talking about now, we can hang out with Angel now, but later we can go out!" She took Joanne's hand and pouted. "Please?"

"Fine, whatever. Later though." She nodded very indiscreetly in my direction, and I rolled my eyes.

"Get out!" Everyone looked at me just a bit shocked. "I'm serious, if this is how everyone is going to be, then get out of my house!"

Maureen shrugged and walked out of the room, causing Joanne to roll her eyes and follow after her, calling her name in an annoyed tone.

I gave the others an accusing glare and left the kitchen with my breakfast only half finished. In my room, I got dressed as quickly as possible, meaning that I didn't want to waste time with make-up and hair, so I threw on my old drumming clothes. They were always a comfort when I was in a bad mood. I grabbed my red jacket and walked out of the house, hearing the door open and close a second time behind me. "Angel!"

I turned sharply as Collins ran down the street toward me. "What?" My hand automatically rose to my hips.

"I'm sorry. We didn't mean to be…"

"I don't want special treatment Tom! It's a hard enough thing to deal with without thinking that every time one of my friends is looking at me they pity me for it! I don't need anyone's pity! I'm fine!"

Collins took a step back. I never yell, so this must be as odd for him to hear as it is for me to say. "We don't mean to pity you Angel." Upon seeing the anger rising in my cheeks he corrected himself. "We don't pity you Angel. We know you're the strongest out of all of us."

I let my hands fall back to my sides. "I am strong, so stop looking at me like a little kid that needs to be held to get through this okay?"

Collins nodded and bit his lip. "Does this mean I can't hug you now?"

I couldn't help but smile. "Okay, but just this once." I gave him a mock glare and held up my arms, allowing myself to fall into his familiar embrace.


End file.
